After almost five decades in the industry, Zarina Wahab finds herself at a point where work excites her again, roles surprise her, and the pressure to prove anything has dissolved. Now, she chooses roles she is comfortable with, and this may also be the reason for her recent foray into South Indian cinema, because she believes that family-oriented stories are gradually vanishing from Bollywood.
In her latest Telugu film, The RajaSaab, Wahab plays a grandmother, starring along with Prabhas and Sanjay Dutt. “It’s a horror comedy, and I was very excited to do this role and genre. The response the film has received is overwhelming,” she says. “It was a beautiful experience working with Prabhas.”
Her upcoming projects, too, reinforce her intention to take roles that reaffirm her belief system. Wahab is currently working on an untitled film by Puri Jagannadh, starring Vijay Sethupathi, where she sees herself in a transformative role—an elderly beggar woman in a story shot entirely in a beggar colony. “It’s completely different from anything I’ve done,” she says. “The story stayed with me.” In another project with Chiranjeevi, she plays his mother, a role she approaches without hesitation or vanity. “These characters have depth,” she says. “They’re not decorative.”
Wahab says that her journey into films was never mapped out. Growing up travelling across Andhra Pradesh, she absorbed different cultures and rhythms. Dance, not acting, was her first calling. Trained from childhood, she arrived in Bombay hoping to work as a dancer, never imagining that cinema would pull her to the centre frame.
Her first film, Dev Anand’s Ishq-Ishq-Ishq, opened doors she hadn’t knocked on. Then came Chit Chor, the classic that made her a household name. The film’s success cemented Wahab as a popular actress in the 1970s. “I never planned this career,” she says. “It all happened by chance. I wanted to dance, but I’m grateful for what acting gave me.”
Over the years, Wahab has built a reputation for sincerity and restraint. “Acting gives me oxygen. Ten or twelve days a month keeps me alive creatively,” she says. The industry, she admits, has changed dramatically. Contracts are stricter, promotions relentless, and the pace unforgiving.
Off-screen, life has tested her resolve. The long legal battle involving her son, actor Sooraj Pancholi, accused of abetment of suicide for his erstwhile partner Jiah Khan. It was a period marked by emotional exhaustion and public scrutiny. “Faith carried us,” she says. “Aditya (Pancholi) stood by us.” The eventual acquittal brought relief, though the experience left its imprint. “No parent should go through that.”
Social media, during that time, amplified the pain. “It can be powerful, but it can also be deeply cruel,” she reflects. “People forget there are real lives behind stories.”
Today, Wahab chooses calm over chaos. Rumours about her marriage to Aditya Pancholi, she says, are firmly in the past. “We’ve grown. We are a secure family.” With The RajaSaab marking a confident return and more projects on the horizon, Wahab is not chasing relevance—she’s inhabiting it, on her own terms.