Actor-filmmaker Sanjay Khan’s autobiography ‘The Best Mistakes Of My Life’ does not tell the truth about his personal life. Too busy portraying himself as an ideal husband and father, Khan seems to forget his very public affair with actress Zeenat Aman which ended rather sordidly with the actor thrashing her at a Bollywood party while onlookers just stared.
Khan, father of 4 growing children, and Aman were in a serious relationship from 1977 to 1980. It was during this time that Sanjay Khan turned into a director with the ambitious steeply-budgeted Abdullah, which starred, who else, Sanjay Khan and Zeenat Aman along with Raj Kapoor. The film was shot way above budget and apparently Zeenat put a lot of her own money into it.
It was then that the affair began to get ugly. Sanjay Khan’s no-nonsense wife Zarine threatened to walk out on the marriage. In order to prove his loyalty to his wife Khan allegedly thrashed Zeenat almost to her last breath before leaving her to bleed on the expensive carpet of a 5-star hotel. She nearly lost one of her eyes in the gruesome incident.
Recalling the incident a close friend of Zeenat says, “Her eye was not the most precious loss that fateful evening when Mr Sanjay Khan decided to prove his mardaangi. For any woman to be subjected to this public humiliation is a scar for life. Zeenat has never forgotten the ugly incident. Although Mr Sanjay Khan seems to have completely forgotten it.”
Ironically Khan while releasing his sanitized autobiography gives interviews on fidelity and trust in marriage.
In an interview he’s quoted as saying, “I’ve always followed a principle: Never cross the line. Of course there were many beautiful women who would vie for me and try to get into my orbit, but I would not senselessly cheapen myself by falling into their hands… I always thought that if I ever went and slept with another woman, what would my children and my wife say…? I may have insulted many a lady by not giving them the right attention, so I apologise for that through your columns…. The institution of marriage is being eroded and isn’t celebrated as it was in the earlier days; when it was marriage till death do us part. My personal advice to all youngsters who get married would be to do their best to make it work. When we could do it in our times, why can’t you?”
Zeenat Aman’s close friend says she laughed so hard on reading these pearls of wisdom from the mighty faithful Khan that both her eyes filled up with tears, including the one Mr Khan slapped so hard that it only half-opens since that fateful evening which she still recalls with a shudder.
