Veteran actor Zeenat Aman recently revealed in an Instagram post that she smoked chillum during the shoot of the song ‘Dum Maro Dum’ from the 1971 film Hare Rama Hare Krishna, helmed by Dev Anand. In the film, she plays the role of a girl who runs away from her home and spends some time with hippies.
She posted her photo from the song where she is holding a chillum in her hands. In the caption, she wrote that they were shooting for the song in Kathmandu and Dev Anand had called in a gang of hippies to be featured in the song. She further wrote, “The hippy extras were delighted with their good fortune. They were not only getting to pack their chillums with hashish in beautiful Nepal, they were also getting free food, going to feature in a Bollywood movie and were being paid to boot!”
She reflected that Dev Anand wanted it to be authentic and that her character, Janice, had to really look ‘stoned’. “And the easiest way to achieve this was to partake in the hippy offerings! So, there I was, still in my teens, gamely taking long pulls from their chillum for take after take,” she said.
She detailed on her experience and said, “By the time we wrapped the day’s work I was high as a kite! I was in no state to return to the hotel in that happy, dizzy and slightly gormless haze. So, some of the team members packed me into a car and took me on a drive to a beautiful vantage point. There in the cold mountain air, I contemplated the Himalayas and slowly, peacefully came down from my high.”
She added, “I later found out that my mother was furious when she learnt what happened, and gave the senior crew members a sharp tongue lashing for allowing her precious child to “do drugs”! Luckily, I was spared her wrath. Well, what can I say, it was the 70s, and I was something of a flower child.”
Zeenat also mentioned in the end of the post that she will be doing a tour in Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur where she will be sharing such anecdotes from her experiences on the film set and dance to the tunes of some of her classic songs that will be performed live. “This is a musical extravaganza especially created for 'my generation' of fans! Don't forget to book tickets for your parents, aunts, uncles and anyone else who grew up dancing to my songs. Yeh Shaam Mastani," she wrote in the end.