'I Wanted To Escape My Personal Life': Zeenat Aman Recalls Shooting For Gawaahi Amid Failing Marriage

Veteran actress Zeenat Aman has been winning hearts ever since she made her debut on Instagram. Since day one, the actress has been captivating followers with her candid anecdotes, thoughtful reflections, and rare glimpses into her personal and professional life, often leaving fans nostalgic and impressed by her honesty and charm. Recently, she dropped yet another throwback story, where she spoke about her second marriage struggles with late actor-director Mazhar Khan. She also revealed details about her “comeback” film Gawaahi, which she shot two years after giving birth to her first child, Azaan.

In her long post, Zeenat Aman reflected on how she wanted to escape her personal life, to become more than just a ‘mother’ or ‘wife’. She also mentioned

having cracks in her relationship during the shoot of her comeback film. Sharing a BTS clip from the set, the actress wrote, “How many comebacks can a gal have? When it comes to me, apparently the answer is unlimited! Gawaahi was shot in 1988, two years after the birth of my first son Azaan and just before the conception of my second born Zahaan. At this point in my life, the rosy picture of domestic bliss that I had conjured up while at the peak of my career was beginning to fade. Marriage and motherhood had both arrived, but the former was starting to show cracks. I was back living with my own mother (with little Azaan in tow) in her flat in south Bombay when an unexpected script arrived at my doorstep. It was a low budget courtroom drama based on Ayn Rand’s play The Night of January 16th, and it was terrifically pitched to me by producer Vivek Vaswani and debut director Anant Balani.”

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She further revealed that with support from her mother, who helped care for her son Azaan, she took on the role of Janhvi Kaul in Gawaahi, a bold and unconventional legal drama also starring Shekhar Kapur and Ashutosh Gowarikar. She added, “Having once wanted to escape my professional life, I now wanted to escape my personal life and remember my identity as something outside of daughter, mother and wife! My amazing Amma stepped in to help out with Azaan and that allowed me to accept the role of murder-accused Janhvi Kaul in Gawaahi. We shot entirely in Mumbai, and the cast included the highly decorated Shekhar Kapur and the talented Ashutosh Gowarikar. I rewatched the film last night, and was reminded that it’s quite a bold and unconventional whodunnit! Kaul is the “other woman” and secretary to business tycoon Ranjeet Chaudhary, whose mysterious death is the pivot on which the plot turns. If slow burn legal dramas, with a dose of passion and perhaps a plot twist are your thing, this one may be worth a watch.”

She went on to call herself a ‘comeback queen’ as she concluded her post. “This interview clip is from the film set of Gawaahi, and for me personally it is madly nostalgia-provoking. The role marked my return to films after giving birth, and so of course it was also hailed as a comeback. One of many I’ve apparently had since! I guess you can call me a comeback queen,” she wrote.

Shekhar Kapur was quick to drop a comment on the post, “I remember Gawaahi well… and I still get a lot of messages on social media about the film… was fun doing that film, Zeenat.” Even fans were seen heaping praise on her in the comments section.

Meanwhile, Zeenat Aman was last seen in The Royals with Ishaan Khatter and Bhumi Pednekar.