Sultana (actress)

Sultana ({{lang-ur|{{Nastaliq|سلطانہ }}was an Indian film actress. Daughter of India’s first female director Fatima Begum and elder sister of Miss Zubeida [leading lady of India's first talkie film Alam Ara (1931)].

Originally from Surat, she was the daughter of Fatima Begum. She became a notable film actress and India's first woman film director and was the sister of actressess Shehzadi and Zubeida.

Sultana was one of Indian cinema's earliest superstars and among the few girls who entered films at a time when it was not considered an appropriate profession for girls from respectable families, let alone Royalty. Born in Surat,Sultana the daughter of the Nawab of Sachin and Fatima Begum. Sultana and her two sisters, Zubeida and Shehzadi, egged on by their actress mother who was to become India's first woman director.

Biography
Sultana Daughter of India’s first female director Fatima Begum and elder sister of Miss Zubeida [leading lady of India's first talkie film Alam Ara (1931)], was a popular actress of silent era mostly cast in romantic roles. She started her career in early 1920s perhaps with Star Films’ Veer Abhimanyu (1922) and appeared in many silent and early talkie films. She married a wealthy gent Seth Razzaq and left for Karachi-Pakistan during partition. Later, she groomed her daughter Jamila Razzaq for a career in Pakistani films. Sultana also produced Hum Ek Hain (1961) to promote her daughter’s career. For that purpose, she hired the famous scriptwriter, dialogue writer and lyricist, Fayyaz Hashmi as its director. The film was shot partially in color and should be considered as one of the first colored experience of Lollywood. The film flopped and Sultana never produced another film again.

Her daughter Jamila married the famous cricketer, Waqar Hasan, who is the brother of the talented sound recording engineer and film maker, Iqbal Shehzad. Waqar Hasan is now a well known businessman, Chairman of National Foods, and he and his wife, Jamila Hasan are living happily in Karachi.