Background
Fatima Begum was born into an Urdu Muslim family in India.
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Fatma Begum
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She is often considered the first female film director of Indian cinema. Fatima Begum was supposedly married to Nawab Sidi Ibrahim Muhammad Yakut Khan III of Sachin State. She was the mother of silent superstars Zubeida, Sultana and Shehzadi.
She was also the grandmother of Humayun Dhanrajgir and Durreshahwar Dhanrajgir, son and daughter of Zubeida and Maharaja Narsingir Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad and Jamila Razzaq daughter of Sultana and Seth Razaaq, a prominent businessman of Karachi.
She began her career on the Urdu stage, shifted to films and debuted in Ardeshir Irani"s silent film, Veer Abhimanyu (1922). Fatima Begum was fair skinned and wore dark make-up that suited the sepia/black & white images on the screen.
Most of the roles required whigs for the heroes as well as the heroines. In 1926, she established Fatima Films which later became known as Victoria-Fatima Films in 1928.
She was an actress at Kohinoor Studios and Imperial Studios, while writing, directing, producing, and acting in her own films at Fatima Films.
Begum became the first female director of Indian cinema with her 1926 film, Bulbul-e-Paristan. While no known prints of the film currently exist, the high budget production has been described as a fantasy film featuring many special effects. If true, the film places Begum among early pioneers of fantasy cinema such as George Melies.
While continuing to produce and appear in her own work, Fatma worked for Kohinoor Studios and Imperial Studios until her last film in 1938, Duniya Kya Hai?
She died in 1983 at the age of ninety one.
Her legacy was carried on by her legendary actress of a daughter, Zubeida, whom besides being a silent film star, acted in India"s first ever talkie, Alam Ara.
