Saira Banu

Saira Banu (born 23 August 1944), also known as Saira Bano, is an Indian Bollywood actress and the wife of the film actor Dilip Kumar. She acted in many Bollywood films between 1961 and 1980.

Early life

Saira Banu was born in India to actress Naseem Banu and film producer Mian Ehsan-ul-Haq, who produced the film Phool in Mumbai and film Wadah in Pakistan. Her grandmother was the courtesan Chamiyan Bai, also known as Shamshad Begum of Delhi (not to be confused with the famous playback singer of yesteryear Shamshad Begum who was from Amritsar, Punjab). Saira spent a significant part of her childhood in London, and went to finishing school. Her grandmother was from Hasanpur Uttar Pradesh.

Career

Saira Banu was 16 years old in 1960, the year she made her debut to Hindi films. She said in a programme, that she had basic talent and little dancing experience. Her peers all were classically trained, which was why she wasn't put in the top league. Saira started taking Kathak and Bharata Natyam lessons with success and trained herself professionally. Soon she became a dancer and her films flaunted more of her dance. Banu made her acting debut at 17 years opposite Shammi Kapoor in the 1961 film Junglee for which she earned her first Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. The famous song from this movie "Yaahoo!! Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe" sung by Mohammed Rafi was a big success. 'Junglee' was written by Aghajani Kashmeri (aka Kashmiri and Agha Jani), who also coached her in Urdu dialogue delivery, given his background in Urdu literature and poetry from Lucknow. 'Junglee' also instantly made her a successful actress throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. But it is said that the turning point of her career was the comedy and love story Padosan, which brought her to be one of the successful actresses.