Begum Khurshid Mirza Pakistani Actress Biography

Begum Khurshid Mirza was one of the senior Pakistani television actors and before Indo-Pak partition she worked in the Indian film industry with the screen name of Renuka Devi. She was born on 4 March 1918 at Aligarh, India. She belonged to the upper middle class family of India. Her father was the leading advocate at Aligarh. Her father was Kashmiri Brahmin who later converted to Islam. Her parents Sheikh Abdullah and Waheed Jahan Begum were the founders of Aligarh Girl’s College. Khursid Jahan as well completed her studies from the Aligarh school and college. She remained at Aligarh until 1934 when she got married to Akbar Mirza a police officer at Delhi.

 She migrated to Pakistan after the partition of Pakistan. Later when Pakistan television Corporation started its transmission and drama serials, it required the professionals. She was rediscovered and she worked in a serial name Kiran Kahani written by Haseena Moeen. After that, she worked in so many other serials and in all the plays her performance was remarkable. She performed in dozens of popular series while staying there at Karachi. She also used to sing songs. She gave her last performance in a play named “Ana”. She permanently moved to Lahore to be with her daughters in 1985 after her retirement.

At Delhi, she stayed with her in laws. Her filmy career started at Bombay. In 1939, a variety show was organized to collect money for the flood victims by the wives of government officers and least donation was fixed as 10 RS. In a theater show there, Begum Khurshid played sitar and show went successful. Many people admired her presence on stage over there and some of them said that she could easily manage to enter the film industry.  She perused the film career in Bombay.  She acted in many films there. She worked in the film industry with the screen name of Renuka Devi. Few of her films include Bari  Daddi (1939), Bhakti (1939), Bhabhi (1938), Naya  Sansar (1941), Ghulami (1944) and many other films. In February 1944, she announced her retirement from Indian film industry.