Zeenat Aman is a famous Bollywood actress and model who is highly influential in Indian cinema. She was one of the highest-paid actresses in the 1970s to 1980s and receive many awards. She was born in Bombay on November 19, 1951. Her mother, Scinda Vardhini Karvaste, and father, Amanullah Khan divorced when she was young. Zeenat is also related to the actor, Raza Murad. Her father was a scriptwriter and passed away when Zeenat was 13 years old. Her mother remarried to a German man, Heinz, and received German citizenship. Zeenat went to school in Panchgani and went to the University of Southern California to study Student Aid but did not graduate. She started her career as a journalist in Los Angeles and moved on to modeling and beauty pageants. One year she won the Femina Miss India pageant and Miss Asia Pacific International pageant. Her debut as an actress began in 1970 where she appeared in her first film “The Evil Within” which was unsuccessful. She had other roles afterward, but the movies were a flop. Her breakthrough in film was Hare Ram Hare Krishna and the song, “Dum Maro Dum” where she won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award and BFJA Award for Best Actress. She continued to make movies and receive major roles. At one point she decided to make a temporary retirement in 1989 to focus on her marriage to Mazhar Khan. She remained retired for 10 years and started to be active again in 1999. After the one movie, she was not cast in a role until 2003. She had fallen into some hardships with employment during the gap but continued to find work and is currently still working now. I was inspired by Zeenat for her Indian-American fashion sense. She didn’t want to follow the traditional Indian style and started to fuse different styles. I often see her wearing flare pants, midi flocks, short blouses, jumpsuits, maxi dresses and such. She was one of my inspirations to be a fashion designer and to be more courageous in the style I wanted to create for myself even though my parents would not approve. I often sew clothes to mimic her style. I remember watching her in the movie Yaadan Ki Barat and lip-synced, “Chura Liya Hai”. She was in an all-white one-piece jumpsuit and when I made the jumpsuit and wore it, my parents were yelling at me about how the jumpsuit was inconvenient and not practical. All I knew was that I loved the dress and it empowered me. I remember another movie she was in named “Don”, she wore a maxi dress. I remember the dress was so beautiful with frills on the bottom and I was so excited that I was able to make the dress and wear it. Zeenat was rated one of the top ten hottest Bollywood actresses of all time in Bollywood Hungama. Most of the people acknowledge her as a Bollywood sex symbol and there are many actresses and artists that mimic her style of fashion.

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