Veteran star Zarina Wahab solidified her presence in the world of entertainment with her acting prowess that shined through Hindi and Malayalam cinema. In her career span, she worked with several stars and met many iconic artists. She even had an encounter with the late Raj Kapoor, and reportedly he used a casteist slur against the actress. In a recent interview, she spoke about the same.
The actress put a rest to all such reports, saying people took things completely out of context. Though Raj Kapoor did use a certain word that didn’t settle down well with the actress. She didn’t react but kept wondering what prompted this behavior. However, later Raj Kapoor explained her everything and the same words turned into a compliment for the actress.
“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,” said Zarina while talking to Lehren Retro.
“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,” explained the actress.

Later when Zarina went to Mumbai she met Waheeda Rehman and told her the entire incident. She told Waheeda ‘I look like you.’ Waheeda mentioned perhaps the jawline is the same. However, Zarina knows Waheeda was only being polite as the two have nothing in common. She doesn’t know what Raj Kapoor saw that day.