The 1960s, within the history of Hindi cinema, was marked by the appearance of colour and Kashmir. The films from that era saw a replacement definition of beauty with many films, particularly romances, being shot in Kashmir. Into this world, stepped within the beautiful Saira Banu. While innumerable Indians today is also at home with her because the wife and lately Dilip Kumar, in her heyday, she was among the foremost fancied leading ladies. On her birthday on Monday, here’s a glance at her life and career in Bollywood.
Saira was the daughter of actor Naseem Bano. As per various reports, her father was movie maker Ehsaan Khan, who moved to Pakistan post Partition. What many might not know is that Saira’s mother Naseem was a successful film actor within the 1940s and was dubbed ‘pari chehra (angel face)’ for her beauty. She worked during a number of films by another stalwart of Hindi films, Sohrab Modi and his production company Minerva Movietone. Her most famous film was Pukar, within which she appeared as Empress Noor Jahan.
Naseem wanted her daughter to possess a decent education. Saira Banu had once revealed how her mother packed her off to London for her education. In an interview with The Hindu, Saira had revealed: “I was studying in Queen’s House, an elite school in London. My mother Naseem Bano who was called the primary ‘Pari Chehra’ or beauty queen of the movie industry, had taken me to London after she saw me taking consider to her ghaghra, lipstick and dance to the tunes of her film songs. For her, academics were more important than films. My grandmother, mother and my brother Sultan lived with me in order that I could consider studies.”
Saira’s maternal grandmother was a famous classical singer, and hence, a culture of arts was always felt in their household. She continued, “As my grandmother Shamshad Begum was a noted classical singer, who had settled down in London, we accustomed receive several people from the music, film and literature fraternity reception. People like Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Mehboob Khan, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, K Asif etc, accustomed visit us regularly. Then also people like Ramanand Sagar, Kamal Amrohi etc, accustomed offer films but my mother would tell them ‘Inke samne film ki baatein na karein (Please don’t discuss films before of her)’.”
But the lure of the silver screen and Saira couldn’t have stayed apart for long. Director-producer Subodh Mukherjee (brother of leading producer Sashadhar Mukherjee who was also the founding father of Filmalaya studios) was making a movie called Junglee (1961) and for it, he needed a ‘tender, petite, innocent-looking girl to play the lead’, as per Saira.
She fit into the role well. Veteran journalist Dinesh Raheja wrote for Rediff, “Though Saira had spent a big a part of her childhood in London and was a school product, she fit the country beauty role in Junglee to a T. Cast as an innocent Kashmir ki kali who reduces the wild city cad Shammi Kapoor to a puddle of devotion, Saira exuded freshness and friskiness.”
Saira went on to figure during a number of successful films, like Ayee Milan Ki Bela (with Rajendra Kumar), Shagird (with Joy Mukherjee), Padosan (with Sunil Dutt), Purab Aur Pascchim (with Manoj Kumar) to call some.
After almost 15 years, she retired from films in 1976. She married Dilip Kumar in 1966, when she was only 22, but continued to figure for 10 more years before finally calling it quits.
