Mumtaz spoke on wearing a bikini onscreen in the 70’s: said- ‘In that era, one could not wear such revealing clothes, did so only on Feroz Khan’s insistence’

Today’s top Bollywood actresses do not shy away from wearing bikinis on and off screen, but in the 70s, it was a big deal for an actress. Even then, actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Parveen Babi, Zeenat Aman and Dimple Kapadia showed courage and did not shy away from wearing bikinis on screen. One of them was Mumtaz who wore a bikini in the 1972 film ‘Apraadh’.

Recently, Mumtaz talked about this in an interview and said that she was not mentally prepared to do this but on the insistence of Firoz Khan, she wore a bikini onscreen.

Firoz and Mumtaz in a scene from the film ‘Apradh’

I was not confident about my body- Mumtaz

Mumtaz said, ‘I was one of the top heroines of that era. If I wanted, I could have said that I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to wear a bikini. I did it only on Feroz Khan’s insistence. He had assured me that if I didn’t like it, he would edit that scene from the film.’

Mumtaz further said, ‘I was not confident about my body. I thought I would not look good in a bikini on screen. Firoz told me – If you do not like it, I will remove the scene. I could trust him, so I agreed because I knew he would not cheat me, when I saw the scene, I felt that I was looking very good. Later, many producers offered me roles in which I had to wear bold outfits or bikinis but I refused. After that, I never wore a bikini on screen.’

Mumtaz is 76 years old.

‘Today’s actresses are bold’

Mumtaz further said that Bollywood has become very progressive now and it is no longer a big deal for actresses to wear bikinis or swimsuits. Mumtaz said, ‘We could never wear such revealing clothes but today’s heroines are very bold’.

Mumtaz worked in many hit films

Talking about Mumtaz, she has worked in many hit films of the 60-70s including Gehra Daag, Humraaz, Aapki Kasam, Roti and Nagin. Her pairing with Rajesh Khanna was very much liked.