Name	Zohra Segal
Height
Naionality	Indian
Date of Birth	27 April 1912
Place of Birth	Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Famous for	Acting

Zohra Segal(born 27 April 1912) is an Indian stage and film actress, who started her career as dancer with dancer Uday Shankar in 1935 and worked with him for the next eight years. She has appeared in many Bollywood films as well as English language films and television series. She is most known for her appearances in Bhaji on the Beach (1992), The Mystic Masseur (2001), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Dil Se (1998) and Cheeni Kum (2007); and the TV series, The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–87), Amma and Family (1996).Considered the doyenne of Indian theatre, she acted with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and Prithviraj Kapoor's Prithvi Theatre for fourteen years, during the period traveled over India, with the troupe.

She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998, Kalidas Samman in 2001, and in 2004, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, presented her with its highest award, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement. She received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honor, in 2010.

She was born Zohra Mumtaz (Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan') on 27 April 1912, in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, one of seven children of a land-owning family of Rohilla Pathans, of Mumtazullah Khan and Natiqua Begum, belonging to Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. She was third of her seven siblings — Zakullah, Hajrah, Ikramullah, Uzra (Uzra Butt), Anna and Sabira — and grew up in Chakrata, now in Uttarakhand (near Dehradun). Like other families of the same class she was brought up in Sunni Muslim traditions — five prayers a day and fasting during Ramadan. As a girl she was a tomboy fond of climbing trees and playing games.

Zohra, lost vision in her left eye as she contracted glaucoma at the age of 1. She was referred to a hospital in Birmingham where she was treated at a cost of £300,000.

She lost her mother while still young. As per their mother's wishes, she and her sister were sent to Queen Mary's Girls College, Lahore, attended by the daughters of aristocratic families, and with all English staff. Strict purdah was observed in the institution and the few males invited to speak there had to do so from behind a screen. As a result of seeing her sister's failed marriage, she decided to pursue a career, rather than get married.

Upon graduating, her maternal uncle, Sahebzada Saeeduzzafar Khan, who was based in Edinburgh to study medicine,arranged for her to apprentice under a British actor. So they started from Lahore by car and, en route, crossed Iran, Palestine, before reaching Damascus, Syria, where she met her cousin. Then they traveled into Egypt and caught a boat to Europe in Alexandria.

Once in Europe she did two things: First she discarded her burqa forever, and second she changed her mind about her career path; she decided to become a dancer instead. Her aunt Dicta took her to try in the Mary Wigman’s ballet school in Dresden, Germany, but she had not ever danced, having lived in purdah for so long. Nevertheless she got admission and became the first Indian to study at the institution.

She stayed in Dresden for the next three years studying modern dance, while living in the house of Countess Liebenstein. Then she happened to watch the Shiv-Parvati ballet by Uday Shankar, who was touring Europe. This was to change her life forever as, impressed by the performance, she went back stage to meet Uday Shankar, who promised her a job on her return to India, at the completion of her course.

While still in Europe, she received a telegram from Uday Shankar: "Leaving for Japan tour. Can you join immediately?" Thus on 8 August 1935, she joined his troupe and danced across Japan, Egypt, Europe and the US, as a leading lady, along with French dancer, Simkie. When Uday Shankar moved back to India in 1940, she became a teacher at the Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre at Almora.

It was here that she met Kameshwar Segal, a young scientist, painter and dancer from Indore, eight years her junior, belonging to the Radha Swami sect. There was initial opposition from her parents, but they eventually gave their approval to marry. Although Kameshwar was willing to convert to Islam to marry Zohra, neither she nor her parents insisted on it. They married on 14 August 1942. Jawaharlal Nehru was to attend the wedding reception, but he was arrested a couple of days earlier for supporting Gandhi's Quit India Movement.

Zohra and Kameshwar Segal had two children, Kiran (b. 1944) and Pavan. For a while the couple worked in Uday Shankar’s dance institute at Almora. Both became accomplished dancers and choreographers. Kameshwar composed a noted ballet for human puppets and choreographed the ballet Lotus Dance.

When it shut down later, they migrated to Lahore and set up their own Zohresh Dance Institute. The growing communal tension preceding the Partition of India made them feel unwelcome. They migrated to Bombay, with one-year-old daughter, Kiran. By now, her sister Uzra Butt was already a leading lady with Prithviraj Kapoor's Prithvi Theatre. Ultimately, she too joined Prithvi Theatre in 1945, as an actress with a monthly salary of Rs 400, and toured every across India with the group, for the next 14 years.

Also in 1945, soon after her arrival, she joined the leftist theatre group, IPTA, acted in several plays, and made her film debut in IPTA's first film production, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Dharti Ke Lal in 1946; she followed it up with another IPTA-supported film, Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar. In the same year, it became the first Indian film to gain critical international recognition and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Her involvement remained mostly with the theatre, though she did do a few films in between. During their stay in Bombay, the couple came to know many celebrities, including Ebrahim Alkazi, in whose play, Din Ke Andhere, Zohra played the role of Begum Qudsia; K.A. Abbas, in whose plays she acted for IPTA; Chetan and Uma Anand in whose house the couple stayed when they first moved to Bombay; and Dev Anand his brother.

She did choreography of a few Hindi films as well, including Guru Dutt's Baazi (1951) and the dream sequence song in Raj Kapoor's film Awaara.Kameshwar, on the other hand, became art director in Hindi films and later tried his hand at film direction.

Zohra Segal had been acting on the stage in different parts of India and putting up plays for jails inmates, including at Ferozepore jail. After staging a play, she stayed on to watch an execution.

After her husband's death in 1959, Zohra first moved to Delhi and became director of the newly founded Natya Academy. She then moved London on a drama scholarship in 1962. Here she met Ram Gopal, a India-born Bharatnatyam dancer, and starting 1963, worked as a teacher in 'Uday Shankar style' of dance at his school in Chelsea, during the short period of its existence.

Her first role for British television was in a BBC adaptation of a Kipling story, The Rescue of Pluffles, in 1964. She also anchored 26 episodes of BBC TV series, Padosi (Neighbours), made in 1976-77. Her career in the next almost two decades remained sporadic, despite several small appearances in many films.

In London, Zohra got her first break in the films and was signed by Merchant Ivory Productions. She appeared in The Courtesans of Bombay directed by James Ivory in 1982. This paved way for a important role as Lady Chatterjee in the television adaptation The Jewel in the Crown (ITV, 1984). Thus starting the second phase of her career, as she went on to appear in The Raj Quartet, The Jewel in the Crown, Tandoori Nights, My Beautiful Laundrette and others.

Zohra came back to India, in the mid-1990s, and acted in several films, plays and TV series since. She first performed poetry at a memorial to Uday Shankar organised by his brother, Ravi Shankar in 1983, and soon took it in big way; she started getting invited to perform poetry at various occasions.

She even traveled to Pakistan to recite verses for "An Evening With Zohra". Over time even her impromptu performances of Punjabi and Urdu verses have become a norm, as after the stage performances she is often requested by the audience to recite Hafeez Jullundhri's famous nazm, Abhi To Main Jawan Hoon.

In 1993, a critically acclaimed play, Ek Thi Nani, was staged in Lahore for the first time, featuring Zohra and her sister Uzra Butt now staying in Pakistan. The play is based on the lives of Zohra and Uzra, who were separated by the Partition of India in 1947 and re-united only in the late 1980s, after a gap of 40 years. This was performed several times in India and Pakistan.

A performance reading of its English version, A Granny for All Seasons, was held at UCLA in 2001.In 2008, at the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF)-Laadli Media Awards in New Delhi, she was felicitated as the 'Laadli of the century'; the award was handed over by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit.

She was married to Kameshwar Nath Segal. She is based in Delhi, India, where she stays with her daughter, Kiran Segal, an Odissi danseuse. Her son Pavan, who works for the WHO, married Seema Rai, the granddaughter of Munshi Premchand, and the couple have three children Rohan, Taamra and Anushka. She is an agnostic having been an atheist in her youth.