In a delightful stroll down memory lane, veteran actress Zeenat Aman has shared an Instagram post on her deep-rooted connection with cinema, with a rare photograph of herself with Uttam Kumar — with a vacant seat reserved for Suchitra Sen separating them — at a theatre in Kolkata in the 1970s.

Musing on the joy that cinema has always brought her, Zeenat posted two photographs taken around 40 years apart. One is the black-and-white snap; the other is of a “raucous and carefree” Zeenat at a screening of “my Don” at Regal cinema last year.

Zeenat fondly recalled the time when she was struck by the magic of cinema and fell for Hollywood star Paul Newman. “I must have been a preteen when I developed my first silver screen crush. It was a dashing Paul Newman in The Silver Chalice, and I wasn’t the only girl to feel my heart flutter when he came on screen,” she wrote in the post.

“Sunday was movie day at my boarding school in Panchgani. It was an eagerly anticipated weekly treat. We girls would pile into the gymnasium where the movies were screened, ready to be swept into alternate worlds… Years later I entered the film industry by chance more than design. There is, of course, a thrill to being in front of the camera, but I still wager that being a member of the audience is more fun!” she added.

The Qurbani actress disclosed a unique aspect of her early years as an actor, admitting to buying tickets for her own films and watching them incognito to gauge audience reactions. Sometimes she also slipped into a burqa to avoid being recognised.

“I suspect the sheer glut of content available now has blunted the thrill of movie watching. But my older followers will remember how novel, exciting, and entertaining cinema-going used to be,” Zeenat observed, asking her followers to share their “favourite film or film watching experience” in the comments.