LAHORE (Web Desk) – Renowned actor, director and four-time recipient of the prestigious Nigar Award Shamim Ara breathed her last in London on Friday.
She reportedly had a brain hemorrhage in 2010 and was taken to London for treatment by her family and was in coma as of 2014.
She was born in Aligarh in 1929. Her acting career spans from the late 1950s till the early 1970s.
She started her film career from Kanwari Bewah (1956) and went on to star in hit movies such as Anarkali (1958), Saheli (1960), Devdas, Doraha and Humraz however; Qaidi (1962), Chingari (1964), Farangi (1964), Naila (1965), Aag Ka Darya (1966), Lakhon Mein Eik (1967), Saiqa (1968) and Salgirah (1968) were landmarks in her career securing her a position as the top actress of the 1960s in Lollywood.
In early 1970s, she retired as the leading lady in the movies and started to produce and direct films.
In 1968 she produced her first film Saiqa (1968) which was based on the novel of Razia Butt.
In 1976, for the first time, she directed film Jeo Aur Jeenay Do (1976). Later she also directed a highly successful movie at the box-office, a Diamond Jubilee film Munda Bigra Jaye (1995).[5] Some famous films she directed include Playboy (1978), Miss Hong Kong (1979), Miss Singapore (1985), Miss Colombo (1984), Lady Smuggler (1987), Lady Commando (1989), Aakhri Mujra (1994), Baita, Haathi Mere Saathi (1993), Munda Bigra Jaye (1995), Hum To Chaley Susral (1996), Miss Istanbul (1996), Hum Kisi Say Kum Nahin (1997), and Love 95 (1996).
The actress was married thrice. First with Sardar Rind, a landlord of Balochistan, who later died in a car accident.
She then got married to Fareed Ahmed, a film director, but this marriage soon ended in divorce.
Shamim Ara then married to a Pakistani film director Dabeer Hussain who died two years back.
Shamim Ara’s impact in Lollywood fraternity was very unique; she played the role of godmother to many of the female actors, who eventually became big names in the industry.
