Zeenat Aman with her mother (courtesy: thezeenataman)
Zeenat Aman is on Instagram, folks – it's been only a day and she doesn't have a verification tick as yet but she's already given the world a blockbuster post. The 71-year-old actress shared a picture of herself as a young woman with her mother Vardhini. The black and white picture is grainy but it's easy to see that the stunning Zeenat got it from her mama. In her caption, Zeenat Aman also reveals that her mother, who had to inter-faith marriages, lived on her own terms and taught her daughter the same lesson.
In her post, Zeenat Aman wrote: "If I have lived an extraordinary life it's because I was brought up by an extraordinary woman. My mother Vardhini Scharwachter was what you'd call a 'pataka' (firework). Elegant, intelligent, feisty and my pillar of support. She was a practicing Hindu and she epitomised the ideas of tolerance, love and empowerment. Her faith did not stop her from marrying my father Amanullah Khan. Later, after they had separated, she fell in love with and married a wonderful German man, whom I called Uncle Heinz. She taught me to stand on my own two feet and to live life on my own terms. She was truly the wind beneath my wings. I lost most of my family photographs in the Mumbai floods of 2005, and so the few that I can find are all the more precious to me."
See Zeenat Aman's post here:
Zeenat Aman joined Instagram over the weekend with this post:
In her second post, she broke down what it was like to often be the "only woman on set" in the male-dominated Bollywood of her glory days:
Zeenat Aman began as a model and beauty pageant winner before switching to acting. She had minor roles in a series of films before being cast as drug-addicted hippie Janice in Dev Anand's Hare Rama Hare Krishna. The role was in every way an unconventional once and set the template for Zeenat Aman's career – her varied film credits included risqué roles such as Manoranjan and Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Zeenat Aman's style was similarly fearless and she is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of Bollywood fashion. Known for iconic films such as Yaadon Ki Baraat, Don and Qurbaani, Zeenat Aman acts very occasionally now.