“IT IS THE DIRECTOR OF A FILM WHO MAKES OR BREAKS AN ACTOR”

ZARINA WAHAB tells JYOTHI VENKATESH

Veteran actress Zarina Wahab celebrated her 62^nd birthday yesterday. I know the actress right from the time she had arrived in Mumbai to make her debut in films.To mark her birthday, I wish her happy birthday along with bollyy.com and Mayapuri and reproduce my interview of  ZARINA WAHAB by me which appeared 46 years ago in the weekly HI on November 19, 1974.

Zarina Wahab

Her debut making film Ishq Ishq Ishq has only just been released, but much before that Zarina Wahab had made a splash on the film scene. Quick work, wouldn’t you say? So when I met Zarina for this interview, I probed delicately into the “how” of her success. And then she confessed that, like Cinderella, she too has to thank her fairy godmother for her transformation from a non entity into an actress with a future.

“Without Jayaji (Jaya Bahaduri to you and me), I would have been adrift in the wilderness of filmland’s unknowns. It is mostly thanks to her that I have about 8 assignments on hand today.”And then she laughingly added, “My Cinderella Jayaji did so much campaigning for me that she has come to be known as my P.R.O.”

Zarina Wahab made the film scene via the FTII. “It wasn’t difficult to get into the FTII. After all, I had confidence in my talent, for I had acted in a couple of plays in school. But it took me a hell of a lot of time to persuade my parents to allow me to join the Film Institute.”Zarina, you see, belongs to an orthodox Muslim family from Andhra Pradesh.

Life at the Institute was an eye- opener for the petitte girl who had studied in a Girl’s High School and then at a Woman’s College. At first Zarina used to be shocked to see male and female students walking hand in hand. “I used to shut myself in my room and refuse to mix with the other girls for fear of being ‘contaminated’ by their radical views on sex. However, I soon grew up and shed my inhibitions. I realized that there was absolutely no harm at all in having healthy friendships with the boys.”

Zarina passed out of the Institute in 1973 with a first class and has tremendous respect for the place that had done so much for her personally and professionally. “It helped me improve my concept on acting and also imbued a lot of confidence in me and enhanced my personality”, though it took her eight months to make her presence felt though.

 “When I met Dev Anand and he asked me if I would be interested in acting in his film Ishq Ishq Ishq, I leaped at the offer. Of course, I was a little bit hesitant about accepting the side role but then Devsaab convinced me that if destiny had it in store for me, I would make the scene no matter what.” Since Zarina believes that it is the director of a film who makes or breaks an actor, she naturally wants to work under good and intelligent directors like Gulzar and Hrishida, who , she says have assured her that she holds a good future but are hesitant to sign her until they see audience reaction to  her first film.

While nothing but the best will do for Zarina Wahab, director-wise, the same goes for her role-wise too. “I do not sign on any and every film that is offered to me. You see while a single successful film could literally zoom me up; a bad film could just as easily ruin my career. I have to be careful about accepting offers”.

Right now, she is doing Mere Pati Ki Patni opposite Sunil Dutt, Urvashi with Vinod Khanna, Choron Ki Baraat opposite Navin Nischol, Anokha and Do Shikari, both opposite Shatrughan Sinha, and a Telugu film Matti Gajulu opposite Krishna. She is also slated to appear as Sunil Dutt’s leading lady in his quickie Mahatma.

I asked her what career she would have chosen had she not opted for this glamorous profession. With a twinkle in her eyes, Zarina revealed that she would have become an air hostess. “After I passed out of school, I almost succeeded in getting a job as an air hostess but my English was just lousy and that spoiled all my chances.” Zarina is fluent in Telugu (her mother tongue), Hindi and Urdu, and though she has picked up a lot of English now, she is kind of hesitant of speaking in it for fear of her accent being laughed at.

Zarina Wahab

That brought me to my final question, before I wound up my interview. “Now that it is becoming the in thing for starlets to get themselves tied up with some guy or the other, what are your plans in that direction”? Zarina gave me a startled look and proceeded to say that at this stage of her career, she has absolutely no time to think of marriage, though maybe she will give it a try “in 5 or 6 years time”. “I’d prefer a He- Man husband and not a hen- pecked mouse. No. He need not necessarily be from the movie line.’

And today, after 46 years after the interview she gave me, Zarina Wahab is still busy working in films,TV serial as well as web series and what’s more, has a husband in Aditya Pancholi and two kids in Sooraj Pancholi and Sana.