Zarina Wahab breaks silence on Raj Kapoor making ‘casteist’ remark against her, says, “People have taken it out of context”

Zarina Wahab has been a significant part of Hindi Film industry. She is popularly known for her role in movies like My Name Is Khan, Agneepath and Dil Dhadakne Do among others.  Talking about her career, she is a trained actor from FTII in Pune. It was at this time Zarina Wahab met the legendary filmmaker Raj Kapoor who made a casteist remark against her. Zarina has now reacted to it.

Zarina Wahab reacts to Raj Kapoor using casteist slur

Speaking to Lehren Retro, Zarina mentioned, “This is incorrect. People have taken it completely out of context. What really happened was, back then, whenever Raj Kapoor used to visit his farm in Loni, he used to call people from the Pune institute (Film and Television Institute of India). We all went, all dolled up. I don’t know what he was thinking, he looked at me and (made a casteist remark). I thought to myself, ‘I dressed up well, why did he use that word for me?’ I felt bad but I didn’t react.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zarina Wahab (@iamzarinawahab)

She added, “When I was leaving, he stopped me and asked, ‘Do you know why I used that word about you?’ I said, ‘No, sir.’ He then clarified, ‘I called you that word because that’s what I call Waheeda Rehman’. That suddenly lifted my mood. What an amazing compliment he gave me. He compared me to Waheeda Rehman. I was flattered.”

Zarina continued, “I was so silly. After all this, when I went to Mumbai. I met Waheeda ji and told her, ‘I look like you’. She looked at me, and she was like maybe the jawline is like me. She was just being kind, we don’t have any similarities. God knows what Raj Kapoor saw in me.”

When Zarina Wahab said Raj Kapoor called her ‘sweeper’

According to several reports, Zarina was rejected by Raj Kapoor the moment he saw her due to her dusky complexion. However, the actress quashed these reports in an interview with Amar Ujala in 2022. She told the portal in Hindi, “When I was studying at Pune Film Institute, Raj Kapoor used to come there often to meet Shailendra Singh. Shailendra was trying to become an actor and during this time he had also sung the songs filmed on Rishi Kapoor in Raj Kapoor’s film Bobby. Yes, one day Raj Kapoor did say to me that you look like a sweeper, I asked him why are you saying so? So he said that I call Zeenat Aman also by the same name. I see Zeenat Aman’s image in you. This was a big compliment from Raj Kapoor for me and people twisted it and presented it as something else.”

For more news and updates from the entertainment world, stay tuned to Bollywood Bubble.

Also Read: Ranbir Kapoor opens up about doing Raj Kapoor’s biopic at IFFI 2024; says, “I talk to lot of people, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali”