‘What a loser’: Zeenat Aman and Gen Z are calling out Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘moral policing’ in 80s film

In December, Zeenat Aman shared a clip from her 1980 film Dostana, co-starring Amitabh Bachchan. The scene shows her character, Sheetal, courageously dragging an eve-teaser to the police station. While the harasser is taken into custody, the moment takes a turn when Inspector Vijay, played by Bachchan, delivers a patronising lecture on what a woman should wear.

In her caption, Zeenat addressed women viewers directly.

“If you’re a woman who watched this clip, let me make a few guesses,” she wrote, before articulating the anger, discomfort, and bitter familiarity such scenes evoke. She pointed out how viewers would likely feel triumphant watching Sheetal stand up for herself—only to be infuriated moments later by the hero’s condescending tone.

 

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“That opinion and tone were par for the course back in the day,” she added, calling out the patronising gaze, the barely disguised “you’re asking for it” attitude, and the moral superiority with which women who defied convention were judged.

Zeenat noted how times—and audiences—have changed.

“Back in the day, your average woman would think Vijay to be a mighty upstanding gentleman,” she wrote. But when she showed the same clip to a young woman recently, the response was blunt: “What a loser.” Zeenat admitted she laughed—and welcomed the irritation. “Oh, I am glad you’re annoyed. That’s what’s changed.”

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More recently, Zeenat Aman shared another clip, this time from Teesri Aankh, starring Dharmendra. Here, the roles are reversed. Zeenat’s character Barkha aggressively pursues Dharmendra’s Ashok, crossing boundaries while he remains visibly uncomfortable.

“Did things really change quite that radically for Hindi cinema heroines in the two short years between the two films?” she questioned. Probably not, she admitted—but the scene offered a rare gender flip. This time, the man is naive and imposed upon, while the woman is roguish and entirely inappropriate.

 

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What makes one scene infuriating and the other oddly amusing, Zeenat explained, is the traditional role reversal. Yet she was careful not to endorse either.

“I can’t endorse Barkha’s approach, just as I couldn’t endorse Inspector Vijay’s,” she wrote. While banter and mischief can be part of courtship, Hindi cinema often took these tropes too far—romanticising obsession, pursuit, and limerence instead of portraying healthy, mutual love.

In a moment of striking honesty, Zeenat Aman acknowledged her own complicity. “I recognise that I have played a part in propagating the ludicrous idea of romance that Bollywood has exported to Indians everywhere,” she wrote, calling her posts a small attempt to correct that legacy.

Her conclusion was unequivocal and timely: “When it comes to relationships, consent is non-negotiable and respect has to flow both ways. Believe me, I learnt this the hard way.”

In revisiting her films not as icons but as cultural artefacts, Zeenat Aman isn’t dismantling her legacy—she’s deepening it. And in doing so, she’s proving that reflection, accountability, and growth can be just as powerful as glamour.