New Delhi: Veteran actor Zeenat Aman, who keeps sharing anecdotes about her experience of working with yesteryear actors, recently recalled working with Feroz Khan and shared how the actor-director once cut her payment for being late on the set. Now Feroz’s son Fardeen Khan has reacted to her post.
Zeenat shared a still from their film ‘Qurbani' and called Feroz charismatic. She wrote, “I read somewhere that Oxford’s word for the year 2023 is “rizz” - short for ‘charisma’. Well, if I’ve ever known anybody to have rizz, it was Feroz Khan.”
She then shared how she was offered ‘Qurbani.’ “Feroz and I had a rocky start. It was the 70s, my star was on the rise, and he called me on the telephone to offer me a role in his upcoming production. It was a secondary part, and so I politely refused the offer. Feroz was incensed and let out a stream of expletives while I held the receiver away from my ear!
Many months later, he called again. This time he started his pitch by saying - “it’s the lead role so don’t reject it”. And that’s how I joined the cast of Qurbani.”
“I often discuss set etiquette in my captions, so I’d be amiss to neglect Feroz’s influence on me in this regard. I was quite a diligent worker, but on one occasion my youth got the better of me. Though we had an early call time the next day, I agreed to go out to a party. It was a fantastic night of dance and drink, and unsurprisingly I landed up one hour late to set. Feroz was glowering behind his camera, and before I could offer him my meagre excuse, he cut me down to size. “Begum, you’re late and you’re going to pay for the delay.” No argument, no scolding, but you can be sure that he docked my pay to pay the crew for that one hour delay,” she added.
Reacting to this post, Fardeen Khan took to his Instagram stories and wrote, “"@thezeenataman aunty, if it's any consolation, family wasn't spared either. We just received the standard family discount of 25% (smiling emoji). Khan Saab would have loved your post. He would have laughed out loud (folding hands emojis)."
Zeenat shared his post on Instagram with a purple heart emoji.
Released in 1980, ‘Qurbani’ also stars Vinod Khanna, Amjad Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Aruna Irani, Amrish Puri and Kader Khan.
Feroz Khan died of lung cancer on April 27, 2009.