Zeenat Aman says Rishi Kapoor kept his distance, was bothered by her height: ‘Nasir Saab propped him up on two cushions…'

Indian Express

12-05-2025

Starting her career in the 1970s, actress Zeenat Aman has appeared in over 80 films. While she was often paired with actors like Dharmendra, Dev Anand, and Amitabh Bachchan, she shared the screen with Rishi Kapoor only once—in Nasir Hussain's Hum Kisise Kum Naheen. In a recent Instagram post, Zeenat shared a rare song and a flirtatious scene she filmed with Rishi, revealing that he was quite irritated by their height difference during the shoot.
In a long Instagram note, Zeenat wrote, 'Director Nasir Hussain had me pinned as a bit of a lucky talisman that year. Why? Because Yaadon ki Baaraat, his previous film in which I had starred, had been a blockbuster hit. I too was quite pleased by the success of that film, and found myself unable to refuse Nasir Saab's request that I make a special appearance in Hum Kisise Kum Naheen.' In both the films, the actress' character was named Sunita.
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Sharing her experience of working with Rishi Kapoor, with whom she shot a brief role followed by a Qawwali, the actress wrote, 'Of all the men I worked with from the Kapoor khandan, Rishi and I interacted the least both socially and professionally. In fact, in all the years that our careers overlapped, we only featured together in this one song. My role involved just this one Qawalli number (the only one of my career) and a romantic scene with Chintu ji.'
A post shared by Zeenat Aman (@thezeenataman)
Zeenat Aman added how just like all of her other co-stars, Rishi Kapoor too had issues with her height. 'Those of you who follow this page know that my costars often found my height prohibitive. Within the rigid gender constructs of Hindi cinema (or perhaps world cinema), it was considered unappealing for an actress to be taller than her on-screen love interest. So there we were, Chintu ji and I flirting for the camera on a russet leather couch, but for some reason our seated positions made our height difference more strikingly apparent. Much to Chintu ji's chagrin, Nasir Saab propped him up on first one and then two cushions to make him appear taller than me!'