Zeenat says Rishi had two cushions to look taller than her

Zeenat Aman is a delight, not just onscreen but also on social media as she treats fans with several anecdotes about her movies and career, people she has worked with. Zeenat has now spoken about her experience of working with Rishi Kapoor, thus underlining how there are gender biases in not just

Hindi cinema

but world cinema – wherein, an actress shouldn’t be taller than her love interest on screen. She recalled this incident, thus sharing a video of a scene and she wrote why she made a cameo in ‘

Hum Kisise Kum Naheen

’. She revealed that out of all the Kapoors, she has interacted the least with Rishi Kapoor. Infact, she shared screen space with him, just in this one song from this film which had her make a cameo. Zeenat wrote, “Oh, you’re a Hindi cinema buff but you’ve never heard this song? That, my dear, is probably because you are very young. Play it for your parents, and they’ll immediately be able to place it. Here’s the truth, 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. That too because 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.” She added, “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. My role involved just this one Qawalli number (the only one of my career) and a romantic scene with Chintu ji. 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!” Aman further put her signature wit and charm to display as she concluded referring to the scene she shared, “The banter is quite fun I think. After all, which one of you ladies reading this has never accused your paramour of something along the lines of - “Jahaan chikni surat dekhte ho, phisal jaate ho!”Am I right?”