although Perizade Zorabian She has been away from the film industry for many years, but she is still an unforgettable face. One look at her and one is reminded of her work in films like Jog Park and Amitabh Bachchan starrer Ek Ajnabee. She was at the peak of her career when she decided to get married and stop making movies. In a recent interview, Perizadeh revealed that she left behind a filmography when she got married, including Anil Kapoor and Nikhil Advani’s Salaam-e-Ishq. Today, instead of chasing scripts, Perizadeh spends his time building a business empire. The company she joined during a financially difficult time has grown into a thriving business with an annual turnover of approximately Rs 120 crore. Ironically, acting was never part of the plan.Born into an Iranian family in Mumbai, Perizadeh grew up idolizing her father and dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. She knew she wanted to follow in his footsteps long before she knew the true meaning of the word. I was 8 years old and couldn’t even pronounce ‘entrepreneur’ correctly, but I knew that’s who I wanted to be,” she said in an interview with Suketu Shah.After completing her studies in India, she moved to New York to pursue her MBA. While there, she met the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute through a friend. Curious about acting, she enrolled in business school and spent a year after completing business school learning the craft.Even so, she returned to India with the intention of joining the family business. At a house party, a modeling coordinator noticed her and offered her an ad for “Fair and Lovely.” One ad led to another, and before long, filmmakers began to take notice. Soon, she was cast as the female lead opposite Nagesh Kukunoor’s Bollywood Calling Om Puri. At the time, Kukunoor was one of the most exciting independent filmmakers in the country, having already built a loyal audience with films like “Hyderabad Blues” and “Rockford.”Perizadeh agreed to make the film and took a month off to complete the shoot. But when the film’s release was postponed, she went back to work.“At Zorabian, I was completely hands-on,” she later recalled. Then came the turning point. Everything changed almost overnight when Pritish Nandy Communications acquired “Bollywood Calling” and put Perizaad at the center of its promotions. “My life has changed since then,” she admits. The timing couldn’t be better. Indian English-language cinema remains a relatively unexplored territory. There were only a handful of films in production at the time, and an equally few actors associated with them. Perizade suddenly found himself popular.One project led to another. Morning Raga, Joggers Park and Mumbai Matinee followed, making her one of the most familiar faces in the niche. But she never confused that popularity with mainstream Bollywood fame. “I am not a Bollywood star. I will not get the attention that Karisma Kapoor does,” she said.Although her acting career was booming, there was another life waiting for her off the set. She continued to divide her time between movies and the family business until her father finally asked her to choose a path. This time, she chose acting. This decision was supported by her father.Over the next few years, Perizadeh created an eclectic body of work. She starred in “Ek Ajnabee” with Amitabh Bachchan, appeared in the TV show “Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye”, performed extensively in theaters and even traveled to China for three months to star in “Bandung Sonata”, in which she played former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.Perizaad married businessman Boman Israeli when he was 33. Before they got married, he expressed his hope that she would avoid extensive travel afterward. “My husband said, ‘Once we get married, I don’t want you to travel.’ And my mother said, ‘Nonsense! How could he say that?’ My sister-in-law said, ‘That’s it. Don’t get married. He already knows you’re an actor. Why would he say something like that at the last minute?”But Perizadeh told her family, “He didn’t say you can’t travel. He said, “I will wait for you, but I would rather you not travel.” I didn’t do any more movies after that. “The decision wasn’t just about marriage. She was also thinking about motherhood. Her priorities had begun to shift. “The biological clock was ticking,” she said, explaining why she chose to focus on starting a family.Looking back, she admits that having children helped her calmly put down the movie. “I knew the only acceptable option was to get pregnant, so I chose to start a family.” At that time, Subhash Ghai wanted her to star opposite Anil Kapoor in Black and White. Nikhil Advani offered her a role opposite Sahail Khan in Salaam-e-Ishq. She refused them all. Her mother remains fiercely protective of her independence.“My mother told my husband, ‘She is a butterfly. Don’t clip her wings because she will wither and die’.” Fortunately, Perizadeh never felt trapped by the decisions he made. Marriage brings new experiences, not fewer opportunities. She continued to act in theater, work on television projects and embrace motherhood. There is one memory that is still deeply etched in her heart. “I had given birth to two children, weighed 48 kilos, stood in front of 1,100 people in a pair of shorts and got a standing ovation,” she recalls.As her film career faded into obscurity, another success story was quietly taking shape. When Perizaad first became actively involved in the family business, the company was in trouble and saddled with huge debts. Over the years she has helped transform the company from a traditional wholesale poultry business into a modern food business spanning retail, ready-to-eat products and quick trade. Today, the company has about 700 employees and annual revenue of about Rs 120 crore.Despite being in the poultry business for many years, she was still very picky about what she ate. Perizade often says she eats chicken every day but avoids ordering it when dining out.
