Fatima Begum
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Fatima Begum (1905 - 1983) was one of the early superstars in Indian cinema and India's first film director.
Fatima Begum was born into an Urdu Muslim family in India in 1905. Fatima Begum was married to the Nawab of Sachin and was the mother of silent superstars like Zubeida, Sultana and Shehzadi. She was also the grandmother of Humayun Dhanrajgir, son of Zubeida and Maharaja Narsingir Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad. She began her career on the Urdu stage and went on to do films and became an established actress in Irani's Star Silent Film Veer Abhimanyu (1922). A couple of years later, in 1926, she set up Fatima Films which later was known as Victoria-Fatima Films in 1928. She was an actress at Kohinoor and Imperial Studios while producing, writing and directing (often also acting in) her own films at the Fatima Co. In 1926, when she directed Bulbul-e-Paristan, she became the first woman director of Indian cinema. Leaning towards direction, Fatima did not give up acting entirely and continued acting till her last film in 1938, Duniya Kya Hai. She died in at the age of 78 but her legacy was carried on by her legendary actress daughter Zubeida, who besides being a silent movie star acted in India's first ever talkie, "Alam Ara".
Fatima Begum was fair skinned and wore dark make-up that suited the sepia/black and white images on the screen. Most of the roles required wigs for the heroes as well as the heroines.
[edit] External links
Fatima Begum at the Internet Movie Database
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