Meena Shorey

Meena Shorey Biography

Meena Shorey is one of the earliest actresses of Bollywood, who later moved to Pakistan. She has acted in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi movies. Her real name was Khurshid Jehan and is known by the screen name, Meena. Started her acting career in 1941 in a supporting role she later got promoted to lead roles and gained fame and popularity. Meena has married five times. Zahur Raja, Al Nasir, Roop K. Shorey, Raza Mir and Asad Bokhari were her husbands. Though she had a glorious film career, she lived a life of penury almost last 15 years of her life and her funeral arrangements were made by charity money. She passed away in 1989.

Khurshid Jehan was born on 17 November 1921 in Raiwind of Punjab in British India. She was born into a poor family of four children and her father attempted many businesses which resulted in failure. She came to Mumbai when her elder sister reached here after marriage. She was spotted by Sohrab Modi at the launch of his film Sikandar in 1941. She played the supporting role of King Taxila's sister in her debut flick. With the success of the film, she received second lead roles for the films - Phir Milenge (1942), Prithvi Vallabh (1943) and Pattharon Ka Saudagar. Till 1947 she worked with Modi only, as per a signed contract. Later she compensated with money to cancel the contract and worked with other production companies.

She also acted in Punjabi and Urdu films after that. She was active in Indian film scene throughout 1950s before she migrated to Pakistan. G. P. Sippy's Shrimati 420 and Chandu (1958) were her last Indian releases. Moved to Pakistan, she acted in 29 films of which she played lead roles in 11 ones. She was one of the leading models too. She was the first Pakistani actress to promote the beauty soap ‘Lux’. She also witnessed troubled marriage life and is reported to get married 5 times, perhaps the highest among Indian actresses. She got married to actors and film makers related to film industry, and all those relations were short lived. Despite having a glorious career after her migration to Pakistan and so many relationships, she lived a life of penury towards the end.

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Updated: March 20, 2016