Tabassum

Tabassum Biography

Tabassum is a former Bollywood actress and successful television host associated with Doordarshan and a few more television channels. She entered acting field as a child artist and in the 1960s she played numerous character roles of Bollywood.  With early 1970s with the launch of Doordarshan she moved to television. She hosted the first TV talk show of Indian television, Phool Kile Hain Gulshan Gulshan which aired for more than 2 decades in Doordarshan since 1972. She is indeed a household name of television viewers and popularly known as a TV presenter and broadcaster. She also worked as a stage compere for several shows. She is married to Vijay Govil, elder brother of actor Arun Govil of Ramayan fame. His family, son and granddaughter are associated with Bollywood though not successful. Tabassum is also credited to introducing comedian Johny Lever to silver screen in the form of a comedian.

She was born on 9 July 1944 in Mumbai. Her father was a freedom fighter while her mother was a writer and journalist. She made her film debut at the age of three in 1947 with the screen name Baby Tabassum. The movies were Mera Suhaag (1947) and Nargis (1947) followed by Deedar (1951). The popular song - Bachpan Ke Din Bhula Na Dena was pictured on her. She also appeared in legendary Indian movies like Baiju Bawra and Mughal E Azam. She played the role of young Gouri in Baiju Bawra.

She entered big screen as an adult actress after a short break and she mostly portrayed character roles of sister, heroine’s friend etc. She played the memorable role of Asha Parekh’s sister in Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963). Ganwaar, Heer Ranjha, Dharmaputra, Bachpan and College girl are a few more roles. Though she stayed in film industry for a long time she managed to get only less significant roles. However she became popular as a television host through ‘Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan’, which ran for 21 years from 1972 to 1993. Based on interviews of celebrity stars, the programme was quite popular. She has also produced and directed a few movies in the 1980s and hosted one reality show - Ladies Special (2009) on Zee TV.

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Updated: October 01, 2014