KWK 8: Did you know! Zeenat Aman received ‘sone ki ginni’ as her signing amount from Raj Kapoor for Satyam Shivam Sundaram

Legendary actress Zeenat Aman appeared in several blockbuster movies like Don, The Great Gambler, Qurbani, Dostana, and others. However, her character of girl-next-door Rupa in Raj Kapoor’s cult-classic Satyam Shivam Sundaram turned out to be a pathbreaking movie for her. During her appearance in Koffee With Karan 8, Zeenat Aman recalled how she bagged the role despite having a ‘Western’ image and received gold coins (sone ki ginni) as the signing amount for Satyam Shivam Sundaram.

Zeenat Aman on bagging lead role in Satyam Shivam Sundaram

During the candid chat, the veteran actress recalled how was it working with Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor. “I was working with him (Raj Kapoor) as my co-star in a film called Vakil Babu where he played the title role and was deep into his script of Rupa. So, in between shots, he would be talking about what he planned, what he wanted to do, how excited he was, and that piqued my interest in every which way. And of course, he had given Bobby, which was a huge blockbuster at that time and I was already an established star in a Western image and I didn’t think that he would ever think of casting me for this kind of a role (as Rupa is a daughter of a poojari). And one day we were shooting at the Esel Studio which was on the road of RK (Studio).

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Sharing how Raj Kapoor reacted to seeing her as Rupa, she stated, “And after packup, I dressed myself up in my version of what I thought he would think was Rupa. With tissue paper stuck on my face and make-up and choti (braids) and Ghaghra-choli and whatever. And I went to RK Studios. And he used to sit in his cottage and had a man named John. I said, John please tell sir that Rupa has come. So, he said, “Rupa? Who is Rupa?” He said, ‘bulalo bulalo’.”

Zeenat Aman on Raj Kapoor giving her gold coins

She further added, “And then I went and he was gobsmacked. I’ll tell you what he said later to Krishna ji. He said because he phoned Krishna ji and she then came in a little bit of time with some gold ginnis (coins). And they gave those gold ginnis to me. And that was my signing amount for Satyam Shivam Sundaram.”

For the unversed, Satyam Shivam Sundaram is a 1978 romantic drama produced and directed by Raj Kapoor and written by Jainendra Jain, starring Shashi Kapoor and Zeenat Aman.

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