Veteran actor Zeenat Aman recently made headlines for endorsing live-in relationships over marriage and reiterating that she would never marry again after the death of her second husband, actor Mazhar Khan. She has often spoken about how her personal experiences shaped her views on relationships. Amid the renewed attention, an old interview of Mazhar resurfaced online. In a video shared by ITMB Shows, Mazhar — who was then working on the television show Buniyaad — described himself as a chauvinist and suggested he preferred Zeenat to prioritise home over her acting career.
Speaking about a film he was planning to direct, Mazhar said: “I am not going to cast my wife. My wife is going to be doing a wife’s duty. She will cook food for the entire unit and have it sent to us on set. I am a very chauvinistic kind of person. I am very clear about things like, ‘If you are my wife, please just be a wife,’” he said.
When asked whether he had encouraged Zeenat to take a break from films, Mazhar clarified, “It wouldn’t be right for me to make her stop working in films. She has actively worked for 15 years in the industry. But right now, she is more interested in her kids and home. Our kids are young. If she receives an offer, maybe she can do a film or two. However, I would never want to do films with her. I believe ‘ghar ki baat ghar mein hi rahe.’”
Years later, speaking about her marriage to Mazhar in an interview with Simi Garewal, Zeenat reflected candidly on her decision to marry.
“At that time, I was ready for motherhood. I felt my biological clock was ticking and I really wanted to have children. That was the chief reason why I got married. I believe the only reason to be married is to have a family,” she said.
She also revealed that she married against her family’s wishes. “I married in a lot of opposition from my family, specifically my mother. Subsequently, she had a heart attack and took it very badly. At that time, I wasn’t analysing things while I was in the marriage, but when I started looking back, I realised there was always an element of wanting to disconnect me from the outside world. He wanted to keep me home with the kids rather than encouraging me to go out and be my own person.”
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Zeenat further shared that she did not feel nurtured in the relationship. “I was not allowed to grow and fulfil my dreams. In the very first year of marriage, I realised I had made a mistake. But since I had done it in opposition to everyone, I decided to live with it. I was pregnant with my child and he was with someone else. There was a big article in a magazine. It’s the reality.”
Interestingly, in that same interview nearly 27 years ago, Zeenat had stated that two people can be together without marriage — a sentiment she reiterated last year, drawing backlash from some contemporaries. She stood by her stance, and once again shared a detailed post on the importance of living together before marrying, rather than entering into wedlock under societal pressure.
Since her debut in 1970, Zeenat Aman became one of Hindi cinema’s most sought-after stars and was often described as a sex symbol. She worked with leading actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Dev Anand, among others. At the peak of her career, she briefly married actor Sanjay Khan, who was already married and had four children. That marriage ended controversially, with reports of serious physical assault. Seven years later, she married Mazhar Khan. She remained married to him until his death in 1998. He was 42.
Zeenat Aman’s statement about how relationships are sacred, not marriage
Remember I posted my opinion on live-in relationships some months ago? It caused a bit of a kerfuffle amongst some of my contemporaries, and was accompanied by the usual accusations of insulting traditional values. Well, here’s a blast from the past, with my younger self sharing the same view.
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I am honestly not courting controversy, but simply expounding the truth I have discerned from my own experiences. The core of my view is that it’s more important that the relationship between two people be held sacred by THEM, than it is that it be “sanctified” for society through marriage. The idea that you cannot have a fulfilling relationship without state/religious approval is quite frankly as ridiculous as the idea that getting married will make an unhappy relationship suddenly happy. I understand societal pressures, and I also understand that more and more young people today are entering relationships as equals. Not to grow wealth, or build alliances, or seek protection, or please parents, or have children… but to experience the beauty of human connection. The bedrock of a healthy relationship isn’t its governmental status, it’s the respect and love two people share regardless of paperwork. Here is the truth – should either of my boys to choose to get married, I will be elated. But what’s far more important to me is that they have meaningful and equal romantic partners in their lives. Whether they get married or not!
This clip is from an overwhelming interview that I did in 1999. I was not at all expecting to be questioned about such personal matters but ended up going with the flow. To be frank it makes me uncomfortable to watch even now. Yet, time enough has passed for me to realise how important such conversations are. In inciting raw and unfiltered answers from me, Simi made such subjects less taboo for others to talk about.
I’m sure many of you have thoughts on this, I’d love to read them in the comments but please be respectful. We are allowed to have differing opinions, without verbal violence.
