Zeenat Aman’s career breakthrough happened when she was cast by Dev Anand in the 1971 film Hare Rama Hare Krishna. The young actress had a lot of Bollywood stars swooning over her, including Dev Anand himself. The actor opened up in his autobiography about being in love with his leading lady, how he planned a romantic date to confess his feelings to her, but eventually had his heart broken. The reason for his heartbreak became a controversy in itself. The Heera Panna actor revealed that Raj Kapoor, who worked with Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, kissed the actress in a room full of people, but the actress later denied the kiss.
In Romancing with Life, his autobiography which came out in 2007, Dev Anand wrote, “Suddenly, one day I felt I was desperately in love with Zeenat… And wanted to say to her! To make an honest confession, at a very special, exclusive place meant for romance. I chose the Rendezvous at the Taj, on top of the city, where we had dined together once earlier.”
But the bliss of new love was short-lived, as his heart broke soon after. “After the premiere of Ishk Ishk Ishk at Metro cinema, Raj Kapoor kissed Zeenat in full view of the invited audience, congratulating her for her sparkling performance in the film. That must have made her evening all the more sparkling. Yet, I was jealous of him for making advances on what I considered my sole possession, my discovery, my leading lady, and desiring her with a kiss,” he admitted in his book.
“This suddenly struck me as a little too familiar. And the way she reciprocated his embrace seemed much more than just polite and courteous… More embarrassment was written large on her face, and Zeenat was not the same Zeenat for me any more. My heart broke into pieces… The rendezvous had already lost all meaning in my mind, I sneaked out of the place,” he added.
However, Zeenat Aman later cleared her stance on the incident and denied having any relationship with Raj Kapoor outside of work. She said, “I would meet him (Raj Kapoor) as his about-to-be heroine. We never had any interpersonal relationship ever, nor during that time, or before or after, never. He was passionate about his work. I was passionate about my work.”
The actress also shared how she was “livid” at Dev Anand’s confession in his book. She said, “To be honest, I was livid. I felt humiliated, hurt and disconcerted that Dev saab, my much older mentor, a person I loved and admired platonically, would not only believe such a story devoid of a shred of truth, but would then go on to publish it for the world to read. For weeks my phone rang incessantly as friends inquired about ‘what really happened’ and shared excerpts from the book. I never did read it though, and in my anger I consigned the copy I was sent to storage in the basement!”