Meanwhile: Perizaad Zorabian Missing from the movies for years, he is another face that people don’t forget. One look at him and one remembers the work he has done in films like ‘Joggers Park’ and Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Ek Ajnabee’. 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 behind a film by Anil Kapoor and Nikhil Advani ‘Salaam-e-Ishq’ when she got married. Now, instead of chasing scripts, Perizaad devotes his time to building a business empire. The company he once joined during financial struggles has become a thriving business with an annual turnover of around Rs 120 crore. Ironically, acting was never part of the plan.Born into an Irani family based in Mumbai, Perizaad grew up idolizing his father and dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. Before she knew what the word really meant, she knew she wanted to follow in his footsteps. I was 8 years old and couldn’t even pronounce the right entrepreneur, but I knew that’s what I wanted to be,” he said in an interview with Suketu Shah.After completing his studies in India, he moved to New York to pursue an MBA. During his time there, he found the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute through a friend. Curious about acting, he enrolled and spent a year learning the craft after graduating from business school.However, 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 commercial led to another, and soon, filmmakers began to take notice. Soon, she became the leading lady in Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Bollywood Calling’ opposite. Om Puri. At the time, Kukunoor was one of the most exciting independent filmmakers in the country, having already built a loyal audience through films like ‘Hyderabad Blues’ and ‘Rockford’.Perizaad agreed to make the film, took a month off from work and completed the shooting. But when the release of the movie got delayed, he just went back to work.“I was completely hands-on with Zorabian,” he later recalled. Then came the turning point. When Pritish Nandy Communications acquired ‘Bollywood Calling’ and put Perizaad front and center in its promotions, everything changed almost overnight. “My life changed after that,” he admits. The timing could not have been better. English language Indian cinema is still an unexplored space. There were only a few films made and a small group of actors associated with them. Perizaad suddenly demanded himself.One project led to another. ‘Morning Raga’, ‘Joggers Park’ and ‘Mumbai Matinee’ followed, establishing him as one of the most familiar faces in the niche segment. Yet he doesn’t confuse that visibility with mainstream Bollywood fame. “I’m not a Bollywood star. I don’t get the kind of attention that a Karisma Kapoor gets,” he said.Even as his acting career progressed, another life awaited him outside the film sets. He continued to divide his time between movies and the family business until his father eventually asked him to choose a path. This time, he chose acting. The decision came with his father’s blessing.Over the next few years, Perizaad built an eclectic body of work. She shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Ek Ajnabee’, appeared in the television show ‘Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye’, performed extensively in theater and even traveled to China for three months to star in ‘Bandung Sonata’, in which she portrayed former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.Perizaad was 33 years old when she married businessman Boman Irani. Before their wedding, he expressed a wish that she avoid traveling too much after the wedding. “My husband said, ‘Once we get married, I don’t want you to travel’. And my mother was like, ‘What nonsense! How can he say that?’ and my sister-in-law was like, ‘That’s it. Don’t get married. He already knows that you are an artist. Why would he say something like that at the last moment?'”But Perizaad told his family, “He didn’t say you can’t travel. He said, ‘I will wait for you but I like it better if you don’t travel’. I didn’t take another film after that.” The decision was not only about marriage. She also thought about motherhood. Her priorities began to shift. “The biological clock is ticking,” she said, 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 fix it was to get pregnant, so I chose to have a family.” At that point, Subhash Ghai wanted her for ‘Black and White’ opposite Anil Kapoor. Nikhil Advani offered her a role in ‘Salaam-e-Ishq’ opposite Sohail Khan. He turned them all down. His mother remained fiercely protective of his freedom.“My mother told my husband, ‘She is a butterfly. Don’t clip her wings or she will wither and die’.” Fortunately, Perizaad never felt trapped by the decision he made. Marriage brings new experiences, not least opportunities. She continued to perform in the theater, worked on television projects and embraced motherhood. One memory remains especially close to his heart. “I gave birth to two children and I weighed 48 kilos wearing shorts and standing in front of 1100 people to a standing ovation,” she recalled.While his film career faded into the background, another success story was quietly taking shape. When Perizaad first became actively involved in the family business, the company was struggling and carrying heavy debt. Over the years, he has helped transform it from a traditional wholesale poultry operation to a modern food business with interests spanning retail, ready-to-cook products and convenience commerce. Today, the company employs nearly 700 people and generates approximately Rs 120 crore in annual revenue.Despite spending years in the chicken business, he remains very particular about what he eats. Perizaad often says he eats chicken every day, but avoids ordering it when eating out.