when Perizad Zorabian Staying away from films for many years, he is still a face that people could not forget. One look at him and one thinks he has worked in films like ‘Joggers Park’ and Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Ek Ajanavi’. He was at the peak of his career when he decided to get married and stop doing movies. In a recent interview, Perizad revealed that she left a picture with Anil Kapoor and Nikhil Advani’s ‘Salam-e-Ishq’ when she got married. Today, instead of chasing scripts, Perizad spends his time building a business empire. The company he joined during financial struggles has grown into a thriving enterprise with an annual turnover of around Rs 120 crore. Ironically, acting was never part of the plan.Born in a Mumbai-based Iranian family, Perizad grew up idolizing his father and dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. Long before he knew what the word actually meant, he knew he wanted to follow in her footsteps. I was 8 years old and couldn’t even pronounce entrepreneur properly, but I knew that’s what I wanted to be,” she said in an interview with Suketu Shah.After completing his studies in India, he moved to New York to pursue his MBA. While there, he came across the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute through a friend. Curious about acting, he enrolled and spent a year learning the craft after finishing business school.Still, he returned to India with every intention of joining the family business. At a family gathering, a modeling coordinator noticed her and offered her a Fair & Lovely advertisement. One ad led to another and before long filmmakers began to take notice. Soon, she was cast as the female lead in ‘Bollywood Calling’ opposite Nagesh Kukunoor. Om Puri. At the time, Kukunoor was among the most exciting independent filmmakers in the country, having already built a loyal audience with films like ‘Hyderabad Blues’ and ‘Rockford’.Perizad agreed to do the film, taking a month off from work to complete the shoot. But when the release of the movie got delayed, he just went back to work.“I was completely hands-on at Zorabian,” he later recalled. Then came the turning point. When Preetish Nandi Communications acquired ‘Bollywood Calling’ and put Perizad front and center in its promotion, everything changed almost overnight. “My life changed after that,” she admits. The timing could not have been better. Indian English-language cinema was still a relatively unexplored space. There are only a few films being made and an equally small pool of actors attached to them. Perizad suddenly found himself in demand.One project led to another. ‘Morning Raga’, ‘Joggers Park’ and ‘Mumbai Matinee’ followed, establishing him as one of the most recognizable faces in the niche segment. Yet he hasn’t confused that visibility with mainstream Bollywood fame. “I wasn’t a Bollywood star. I wouldn’t get the kind of attention that a Karisma Kapoor would get,” she said.Even as his acting career flourished, another life awaited him outside the film set. He divided his time between films and the family business until his father asked him to choose a path. This time he chose acting. This decision came with the blessings of the father.Over the next few years, Perizad produced an eclectic body of work. She shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Ek Ajanvi’, appeared in the television show ‘Hum Pardesi Ho Gay’, acted extensively in theater and even traveled to China for three months to act in ‘Bandung Sonata’, where she played former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.Perizad was 33 when she married businessman Boman Irani. Before their marriage, she expressed a preference that she avoid extensive travel after marriage. “My husband said, ‘Once we get married, I don’t want you to visit’. And my mother was like, ‘What nonsense! How could he say that?’ And my sister-in-law was like, ‘That’s it. don’t get married He already knew you were an actor. Why would he say something like that at the last minute?’But Perizad told his family, “He didn’t say you can’t travel. He said, ‘I will wait for you but I would prefer if you don’t travel’. I didn’t do any more films after that.” The decision wasn’t just about marriage. She was also thinking about motherhood. Her priorities began to shift. “The biological clock was ticking,” she says, explaining why she chose to focus on starting a family.Looking back, she admits that having children helped her make peace with leaving films. “I knew the only way to be okay with it was to get pregnant, so I chose a family.” At that time, Subhash Ghai wanted her for ‘Black and White’ opposite Anil Kapoor. Nikhil Advani offered her a role in ‘Salam-e-Ishq’ opposite Sohail Khan. He rejected them all. His mother fiercely defended his freedom.“My mother told my husband, ‘She’s a butterfly. Don’t clip her wings because she’ll wither and die’.” Fortunately, Perizad was never stuck in his decision. Marriage brings new experiences, not fewer opportunities. She continued to act in theater, work on television projects and embrace motherhood. One memory remains particularly close to his heart. “I gave birth to two children and I weighed 48kg in a pair of shorts and stood up in front of 1100 people to receive them,” she recalls.While his film career faded into the background, another success story was quietly taking shape. When Perizad first became actively involved in the family business, the company was struggling and carrying significant debt. Over the years, he has helped transform it from a traditional wholesale poultry operation to a modern food business with interests in retail, ready-to-cook products and quick trade. Today, the company employs around 700 people and generates an annual revenue of around Rs 120 crore.Despite years spent in the poultry business, he remains very specific about what he eats. Perizad often says he eats chicken every day, but avoids ordering it when eating out.
