Zeenat Aman was quite a heartthrob back in the days. Coveted and admired by all, she was every man’s dream woman. Many hearts broke when Zeenat decided to marry Sanjay Khan. Little did she know that this marriage would break her heart.
Sanjay Khan was married with three children when he fell in love with Zeenat on the sets of their film Abdullah.
A story in Cine Blitz dating back to 1980 elaborates on an incident in which Sanjay beat Zeenat black and blue at a five-star hotel in Mumbai, in the presence of several onlookers.
It all started when the starlet was shooting in Lonavala and Sanjay called her up from Mumbai and demanded that she leave everything and reshoot a portion of a song in Abdullah that had already been shot. However, Zeenat told him that she already had previous commitments he accused her of being sexually involved with the other film-makers.
Tensed, Zeenat decided to go to his house to reason with him where she was told that he was attending a party at the Taj Hotel. When she reached the hotel, the “atmosphere suddenly turned cold and menacing” and an intoxicated Sanjay asked her why she had come to the hotel.
Following that Sanjay took her to an adjoining room and “let loose his animal wrath.” He beat her up, dragging her by her hair and beating her while his wife Zarine supposedly cheered on him.
All the guests at the party knew what was happening; yet nobody interfered. It was the steward who came to Zeenat’s rescue, who by now had blood and tears streaming down her face. And as per sources, the actress required eight days of medical care to recover from this beating. However, she still did not report Sanjay to the police, as she was still in love with him.
Her doctor revealed, “This is not the first time this man has beaten her. Once before she was given a black eye and kicked in the ribs so hard that I insisted on an X-Ray for fear of a crack.”
Zeenat had wed Sanjay in Jaisalmer in 1978, a marriage that lasted less than a year. Many had warned Zeenat against it since Sanjay was already a married man with three kids, but she defended him fiercely and supported him throughout.
News is that Sanjay is now coming out with a biography titled My Best Mistakes, and audiences are most interested in his affair with Zeenat. Fans of both the stars want clarifications and the truth behind the incident which was widely discussed and debated. Another incident also occurred in which Sanjay and his wife supposedly beat Zeenat so seriously that she lost much of her vision in one eye.
Rumour has it that both Sanjay and Zeenat were immensely drawn to each other during the shoot of their film, and Sanjay despite having three kids was involved in a full-fledged affair with Zeenat.
Reportedly, Zeenat had admitted in an interview the existence of a ‘nikkah’.
She elaborated that, “Yes, I was married to Abbas (Sanjay’s real name). I believed in the sanctity of my marriage. And all the time I was married to him, I have served him as a dutiful wife.”
Zeenat was also once quoted saying, “I was very naive and vulnerable at that time. It was a few weeks of madness, that’s it,” reported Yahoo! India.
But Zarine who was pregnant with son Zayed during the late 70s gave a different story to Filmfare. “It came as a shock. I went through much emotional turmoil when I was carrying Zayed,” she confided. “But I had self-confidence. I’d wear six-inch heels in the ninth month of my pregnancy just to be stylish, just to keep up a brave front but I was completely heartbroken. I then took to interior designing.”
To prevent her home from breaking, Zarine revealed, “I threw a tantrum and gave Sanjay an ultimatum that I’d walk out. That’s when things returned to normalcy. Maybe it was just ‘a mad wind’ that blew over,” she said.
“The media was unfair to him. They unnecessarily attacked Abbas. They made him out to be the evil one,” Zarine defended her husband. “Now, looking back, I feel so bad. I even said hello to her (Zeenat). Today she’s happy, I am happy, life has moved on, it’s over!”
A lot has been speculated about this incident in a bunch of Indian publications but will Sanjay has never discussed this incident before. Seems like we’ll have to read the book to find out.
