Google Pays Tribute To Zohra Sehgal With A Special Doodle

Iconic Indian actress Zohra Sehgal featured on Google Doodle today, as the search engine paid her a special tribute. Her film ‘Neecha Nagar’ had released today in 1946 at the Cannes Film Festival and had reportedly won the festival’s highest honour, the Palme d’Or prize.

Sahibzaadi Begum Zohra Mumtazullah Khan was born on April 27, 1912 in Uttar Pradesh. In her early 20s, Zohra Sehgal enrolled at a prestigious school in Germany to earn ballet and went on to tour internationally with legendary Indian dancer Uday Shankar. She also became a teacher at Uday Shankar’s troupe and found the man of her dreams, Kameshwar Sehgal. They tied the knot in August 1942 and had two children.

In 1945, Sehgal joined the theatre group, Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), acted in several plays, and made her film debut in IPTA’s first film production, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Dharti Ke Lal in 1946; she followed it up with another IPTA-supported film, Neecha Nagar. Directed by Chetan Anand and starring Rafiq Ahmed, Kamini Kaushal and Uma Anand, Neecha Nagar was one of the first projects of the parallel cinema movement in the subcontinent. Upon release, the film became a critical success and was screened as such international film festivals as Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or.

During her stay in Bombay, Sehgal became friends with several theatre and film personalities. She continued her association with theatre, appearing in successful productions including Ebrahim Alkazi’s Din Ke Andhere (portraying Begum Qudsia) and K.A. Abbas’s stage productions for IPTA. She also worked as a choreographer for Hindi films, including Guru Dutt’s Baazi and Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (both 1951).

Plays

In 1993, the critically acclaimed play Ek Thi Nani was staged in Lahore for the first time, featuring Zohra and her sister Uzra Butt (who was now staying in Pakistan). A performance of its English version A Granny for All Seasons was held at UCLA in 2001.

In 2012, she became the first actor to have appeared on Doctor Who (Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963) to celebrate their 100th birthday, and was also the oldest living actor to have appeared on Doctor Who until her death in 2014, after which Olaf Pooley became the oldest living actor to have appeared on the show. Following her death, she remained the longest-lived actor to have appeared on Doctor Who until 2019, when she was surpassed by Earl Cameron.

Sehgal’s first film role came in 1982, when she was signed by Merchant Ivory Productions. She appeared in the James Ivory-directed The Courtesans of Bombay, which released later that year. This paved the way for an important role as Lady Chatterjee in the television adaptation of The Jewel in the Crown (ITV, 1984). She continued to make sporadic appearances in British films for the next few years, most notably in such productions as The Raj Quartet, The Jewel in the Crown, Tandoori Nights, and My Beautiful Laundrette.

Hindi Films

Her last appearance was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2007 release ‘Saawariya’ which featured Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. She has featured in hits like ‘Cheeni Kum’, ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, ‘Dil Se’, ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…’ and ‘Veer Zaara’ to name a few. In her career she has acted with heroes across generations – Prithviraj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Govinda, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor.

For her contribution to the field, Zohra Sehgal received many accolades and awards including Padma Shri in 1998, and Padma Vibhushan in 2010.