Esther Victoria Abraham

Esther Victoria Abraham Biography

Esther Victoria Abraham, better known by her stage name Pramila is India’s First Miss India. She won the beauty pageant in the year 1947. Apart from being a successful model, she has also appeared in several movies, with the stage name Pramila. Her second marriage was with actor Kumar, who has worked in historic movies like Mughal-e-Azam and Shri 420. Their son Haidar Ali is an actor and screenwriter associated with Bollywood, who was seen in the popular film, Jodha Akbar in the song picturisation of Khwaja Mere Khwaja, and also co-scripted the movie with Ashutosh Gowarikar.

Pramila was born into a Jewish family in Kolkata. Esther Victoria Abraham is her real name. A born rebel, she entered to the world of theatre and stage, at a time when it was a taboo to women in the conservative Indian society. She was brought up in Jewish faith. She wore the pants and led an interesting personal life. She walked out of her conservative Baghdadi Jewish home in Kolkata, to join a Parsi travelling theatre. Later she established herself as a vamp and stunt actress for more than 30 Bollywood films.

Pramila has married twice. She eloped with Marwari theatre director Manicklal Dangi durin her teens and had 5 children from first marriage. Later she married Kumar and had 4 children. Noted screenwriter and actor Haider Ali was born from her second wed lock with actor Kumar. When Kumar migrated to Pakistan in 1963, she settled with Parsi filmmaker Nari Gadhali for four decades. Her colossal battle to get back her property in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park area has always kept her in limelight for a long time.

Ulti Ganga, Bijli, Basant and Jungle King are some of her major films and she was the first major Indian woman who established herself as a successful film producer. She produced 16 films under her Silver Productions banner. Once Maharashtra Chief minister Morarji Desai had her wrongly arrested as a Pakistani spy, as she used to regularly visit the country for her film distribution. The saga of independent India's first-ever beauty queen came to a close on August 6, 2006. She led her life like a whirlwind who believed in achieving own goals with powerful determination and strength.

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Updated: December 06, 2015