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Zeenat Aman made her debut in the movies with Dev Anand’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna and by her own admission, the film made her a “star”. In her new Instagram post, Zeenat shared the story of how she got her first big break and how she was one of the lucky ones to find her “starmaker” in Dev Anand.
Zeenat shared that back in 1970, she had plans of moving to Malta with her mother and stepfather but it was around this time that she got a chance to meet Dev Anand and his team who were casting for Hare Krishna Hare Rama. “I vividly remember what I wore that day. A fitted yellow top, a fawn-coloured skirt and glasses with yellow frames. My mother was at the meeting (remember, I was still in my teens). So she held forth, while I spoke when spoken to, and packed tobacco into my pipe. The meeting concluded, and a few days later the landline jangled. I was asked to come for a screen test, and that is how I came to be cast as Jasbir/Janice,” she shared.
Zeenat Aman said that “Dev saab persuaded my mother and I to delay our travels” as they were ready to leave the country. But they flew to Kathmandu where the film was to be shot. The actor would wait for hours to be called on set and when she was called, she would be extremely enthusiastic about her performance. “I was frothing at the bit by the time it was finally time for my scenes. The first of which was a bus sequence. It makes me laugh to watch it now because I know I’m practically spitting out my lines in my impatience to prove myself,” Zeenat recalled.
The Satyam Shivam Sundaram actor said that Dev Anand promised to edit and release Hare Rama Hare Krishna quickly, so Zeenat’s plans to move could be postponed. “He promised to edit quickly and get the movie into the cinemas. Sure enough, the film released, it became a huge hit, and I became a star. My immigration plans were now indefinitely postponed, and Dev Saab started writing another script with me in mind…” she shared.
Zeenat Aman’s account of meeting Dev Anand is quite different from the actor-filmmaker’s account, which he detailed in his autobiography Romancing with Life. As per his account, the two of them first met at a party and he felt a spark between them as soon as they met. He recollected that the first words she ever said to him were, “I am your Janice, Dev.”
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