Golden Era of Bollywood: Happy Birthday Saira Bano

Saira Banu (born August 23, 1944) is the daughter of Naseem Banu, a well-known actress of the 1930's and 1940's and the grand daughter of the famous playback singer of the yesteryears Shamshad Begum. She is also the wife of actor Dilip Kumar.

Saira Banu made her acting debut at 17 years opposite Shammi Kapoor in the 1961 film Junglee for which she earned her first Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. The famous song from this movie "Yaahoo!! Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe" sung by Mohammed Rafi was a big success.

Her next film was Shadi(1962) opposite Dharmendra, She did one more film opposite Shammi Kapoor named -Bluff Master directed by Manmohan Desai.

Some of her successful romantic films include 'Jhuk Gaya Aasman' and 'Aayi Milan Ki Bela' with Rajendra Kumar and 'April Fool' with Biswajeet and 5 films with actor Joy Mukherjee - 'Aao Pyar Karen', 'Saaz Aur Awaaz', 'Door Ki Awaz', 'Yeh Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai' and'Shagird'. She did double role in the film 'Yeh Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai'.

She married Dilip Kumar on October 11,1966. He was 44 and she was barely 22. Many eyebrows were raised and people were quick to forecast a failed marriage. How-ever, 50 years and the two have stuck by each other through thick and thin. And when the veteran actor was recently taken ill, Saira stood by him like a rock.

After her mairrage in 1966, her first film to release was Aman opposite Rajendra Kumar and she continued to act as the lead heroine till 1977. But it is said that the turning point of her career was the comedy and love story Padosan in 1968 opposite Sunil Dutt, which brought her to the top league of the successful actresses and she started receiving more offers.

She did 3 films with Dilip Kumar that too after marriage .Out of these 3 films only Gopi(1970) was a hit the other 2 Sagina(1974)and Bairag(1976).were average.

She established herself as versatile actor, post her marriage, with her performances in Padosan, Victoria 203, Jhuk Gaya Aasman, Sagina, Chaitali - with each of them belonging to different genres.She got three Filmfare nominations as Best Actress for Shagird (1967), Diwana (1968), and Sagina (1974).

She was paired with all the heroes of that time ,with Dharmendra she did Jwar Bhata, Aadmi Aur Insaan, Resham Ki Dori, Pocket Maar, International Crook, and Chaitali.She also did 'Pyar Mohabbat' with Dev Anand and did two films with Manoj Kumar, namely 'Poorab Aur Paschim' and 'Balidan'.

Her pairing with Sunil Dutt after Padosan continued to be good at box office with films like Nehle Pe Dehla being successful in 1976. The song Sawan Ka Mahina Aagaya became very popular in 1976.
She did 2 films with Amitabh Bachhan Zameer (1974) and Hera Pheri(1976) directed by Prakash Mehra and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saira Banu, Vinod Khanna,Sulakshana Pandit, Shreeram Lagoo and Asrani. The film's music is by Kalyanji Anandji and the lyrics by Anjaan.This movie was a 'superhit' at the box office.