| Begum Para | |
| Birth Name: | Zubeda Ul Haq |
| Birth Date: | 25 December 1926 Jhelum, Punjab, British India (present-day Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Death Place: | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Spouse: | Nasir Khan |
| Children: | 3, including Ayub Khan |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Yearsactive: | 1944–1956, 2007 |
| Relatives: | Dilip Kumar (brother-in-law) Rukhsana Sultana (niece) Amrita Singh (grandniece) Saira Banu (sister-in-law) |
Begum Para (née Zubeda Ul Haq; 25 December 1926 – 9 December 2008) was an Indian Hindi film actress who was active mostly in the 1940s and 1950s.[1] [2] After almost 50 years of absence in the industry, she returned to films with her last role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya (2007) as Sonam Kapoor's grandmother. In her times in 1950s, she was considered a glamour girl of Bollywood, so much so, that Life magazine had a special session with her devoted to her fine sensuous photographs.[3] [4]
Begum Para was born as Zubeda Ul Haq in Jhelum in British India (present day in Punjab, Pakistan). Her father, Mian Ehsanul-Haq, belonging to an aristocratic family, was a judge from Jalandhar who, at some point in his life, entered the judicial service of the princely state of Bikaner, which is now part of northern Rajasthan, where he eventually became chief justice of its highest court. He was a fine cricketer of his time. Her family settled in Aligarh.[5] [4] [6] [7] She was brought up very disciplined yet liberal. She spent her childhood in Bikaner. She was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University. Her elder brother Masrurul Haq, had gone off to Bombay in the late 1930s to become an actor. There he had met and fell in love with the Bengali actress Protima Dasgupta, and married her.[8] [4]
Whenever she visited them in Bombay, she was quite taken up with the glitzy world of her sister-in-law. She used to accompany her on many occasions and get-togethers. People would get quite impressed with her looks and offer her a lot of roles. One such offer came from Sashadhar Mukherjee and Devika Rani.