Actor Zeenat Aman lived a glamorous life, first as a model, and then as an actor. Zeenat’s early years as a model had her appearing in many magazines and print advertisements and in a recent post on Instagram, Zeenat shared some of these memories.
Her post on Instagram started with remorse over her “archival skills” and how the passage of time has taken many memories away from her. She said, “It is such a pity that I am an awful archivist! Almost all my material memories have been lost over the years. The photographs, letters, slides, and notes of my 50-year-long career are all lost to the passage of time.” She added that she is glad for the internet and how she sometimes runs into her old work online.
“Each picture gives me a little jolt of recollection and unearths buried memories. My modelling career was short but fruitful and an excellent outlet for a teenager working on her poise, confidence and pocket money,” she shared. While she admitted that some of these ads might appear dated now, she also spoke about the charm of old print advertisements that “TV could never replace.”
The first picture of the carousel was an advertisement for Air India, and the tagline read, “Long after you leave India, India will still be with you,” with a close-up of Zeenat with kohl-lined eyes. She shared a rather interesting picture next, from a time when she and Shobha De modelled together for a jewellery brand. The caption read, “Bouffants and cat eyes! A modelling assignment with Shobha De, for a jewellery brand if I remember correctly. Some years ago we bumped into one another at an event in Australia, and Sanjoy K Roy made us recreate these frames for a laugh.”
The next advertisement was for a textile company where Zeenat can be seen wearing a Sharon Tate-like outfit from the 1960s. She said, “I spent a scholarship year in California during the late 60s, and you can see the influence it had on my fashion sense.” The next ad is from the actor’s peak years in Bollywood, as she is seen posing for the soap brand.
Zeenat was last seen in the Netflix series The Royals.
