Saira Banu Movies and Career Information

Saira Banu also Saira Bano (Hindi: साइरा बानु, Urdu: سائرہ بانو) (born 23 August 1944), an Indian actress, is a popular Bollywood heroine and the wife of the famous film actor Dilip Kumar. She acted in many blockbusters from 1960-80. Saira Banu was born in India to actress Naseem Banu of 30s-40s, and the granddaughter of a courtesan Chamiyan Bai, also known as Shamshad Begum (not to be confused with the famous playback singer of yesteryear Shamshad Begum. Her father was film Producer Mian Ehsan-ul-Haq, who Produced film Phool in Bombay and film Wadah in Pakistan. Saira had spent a significant part of her childhood in London, and went on to finish school.She was a very good actress at her school winning many awards and bringing laurels to her parents. Banu made her acting debut at 17 years opposite Shammi Kapoor in the 1961 hit 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" was a big hit. It was sung by the singer Mohammed Rafi. Junglee was written by Aghajani Kashmeri (aka Kashmiri and Agha Jani), who also coached her in Urdu dialogue delivery, given his background in Urdu