Talented mega stars, Omar Sharif and Barbra Streisand’s scandalous affair during the filming of critically acclaimed box office hit Funny Girl made headline news globally due to the Israeli-Egyptian Six Day War breaking out at the same time in June 1967. First Sharif nearly got fired by the film’s Jewish financiers, then when a poster of the two stars kissing came out the following year, the Egyptian government nearly revoked his citizenship since  Jewish Barbra was such a vocal proponent of Israel. However, their hot affair only lasted the duration of the filming and the two stars went on to love countless others

Omar Sharif, internationally recognized actor of such classic epics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, playboy, gambling addict and loner, was born Michel Demitri Chalhoub, a Catholic of the Greek Orthodox denomination and of Lebanese descent, in Alexandria, in 1932. His father, Joseph Chalhoub, was a prosperous precious woods merchant who moved to Cairo when his son was four. Chalhoub became even wealthier when he started salvaging barbed wire left behind by the British during the Second World War in the desert, and turning it into nails. His  wife Claire, a glamorous socialite, and notoriously flamboyant gambler, soon came to the attention of King Farouk, as the only woman who could match the King’s high stakes. Claire relished her connection with the King, and becoming part of the elite.

According to Sharif, his father’s business was very successful during that time through “dishonest and immoral ways.” In a 2012 interview to Rachel Halliburton for the Independent, Sharif recalls, “My mother used to play cards with King Farouk. He believed she brought good luck to him – she was his mascot. He often came round to our house. I was around 10 years old at the time – if I came home and realised he was there, I would just sneak into bed. My mother used to sit up all night.” He laughs. “By night she would play cards, by day she would give me the slipper. She hit me on my backside every day till I was 14. She was an extraordinary woman – she lived till 1998. I was very close to her, even though she beat me all the time!”

At age 10, the chubby Chalhoub boy was sent to the elite Victoria College boarding school, where he demonstrated a flair for languages. He spoke Arabic, English, Greek, French, Spanish and Italian fluently, which later benefitted his acting career. At school, while playing the title character in his first production, The Invisible Duke, though he was concealed in a box on stage for most of the play, the acting bug bit him and he got hooked onto the thrill of performing. Though Michel graduated from Cairo University with a degree in Mathematics and Physics, he dreamt of becoming an actor, but his father wouldn’t hear of it. The young man reluctantly joined the family business and subsequently staged a suicide bid, slashing his wrists to scare his father. Michel was also fast becoming a ladies’ man, selling his possessions to take girlfriends to dinner if his parents refused to give him extra money. Finally, after much cajoling and threatening, the rebellious young man left for London to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

In an Arab language film at the start of his career With his first wife, top Egyptian actress Faten Hamama and their son Tarek With good friend Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) that Sharif later said modestly was just shots of men riding camels

After King Farouk’s deposition in 1952 during the Egyptian Revolution, wealth changed hands in Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalisation policies and Chaloub’s business “took a beating,” according to Sharif. In 1954, Michel landed a part in an Arab language film The Blazing Sun opposite popular actress Faten Hamama. Faten had never been kissed on screen before, but she was so instantly smitten with the young actor that she made an exception for him.  The kiss became a national sensation, the two fell in love and quickly got married. Michel converted to Faten’s religion, Islam, taking on the name Omar Sharif, meaning nobleman, which also became his screen name to save his father the embarrassment of seeing his son go into showbiz. Over the next seven years the starry couple made more than a dozen movies together and had one son Tarek, born in 1957, who appeared age eight in Doctor Zhivago playing his father as a child.

In1962, Sharif, who at this time was unknown outside of Egypt, was cast by director David Lean in Lawrence Of Arabia as Sherif Ali Ben El Kharish, in what is now considered one of the “most demanding supporting roles in Hollywood history.” Historian Steven Charles Caton notes that Lean insisted on using ethnic actors to make the film authentic.

Starring opposite Julie Christie, whose proposition he turned down citing her fondness for fried egg sandwiches as the reason This epic film is set during WW I and the subsequent Russian Revolution. The war drama and its fallout is seen by the audience unfolding through the main protagonist’s eyes

Additionally, Lean chose Sharif “for his liquid brown irises — a perfect contrast to the star Peter O’Toole’s glittering blue eyes. Sharif’s first appearance, shimmering out of the desert haze, won countless admirers,” writes Halliburton.  “Despite the rebelliousness and towering ego, Sharif seems extremely malleable when it comes to those he respects.” Lean made him grow the moustache for the role that he kept for most of his life. “At some points, to hear him talk you’d think life began for Sharif only once Lean took him out of Egypt.”

Peter O’Toole, who played the titular role of T.E. Lawrence considered Sharif’s name ridiculous and insisted on calling him “Fred.” The pair soon became best buddies and used to take off for Beirut in the short breaks they had once a month while filming in the Jordanian desert.

“We’d drink without stopping for 48 hours … we went hunting girls in every bar, every nightclub,” Sharif writes in The Eternal Male, his in your face chauvinistic and machismo Seventies autobiography. Their hard-partying lifestyle landed them in jail the night before the film’s Hollywood premiere, when they accompanied comedian Lenny Bruce as he shot up with a hypodermic syringe. “The producer Sam Spiegel got us out of jail,” Sharif told Halliburton. “He arrived with six lawyers. Of course we were completely terrified.”

“My desires were strengthened by wanting to prove to my mother that I could be a star” With first husband actor Elliot Gould, with whom she split because his career couldn’t keep pace with hers

In later life, Sharif claimed to be baffled by the film’s success, saying it was just shots of men riding camels. He is reported to have said modestly, “I think it is a great film, but I am not very good in it. I also never thought anyone would go to see the film – three hours and 40 minutes of desert, and no girls!” Lauded for his mesmerizing entrance, Sharif’s turn in the classic earned him an Academy Award nod for Best Supporting Actor, as well as Golden Globe wins for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year.

So pleased was Lean with Sharif’s performance that he cast him in the title role of his epic love story Doctor Zhivago (1965). The classic film was adapted from Boris Pasternak’s 1957 novel that was banned in the USSR for 30 years and is set during World War I and the Russian Revolution. Sharif plays the role of Yuri Zhivago, a poet and physician. Film historian Constantine Santas writes that Lean portrayed the period in a poetic and lyrical manner with powerful cinematography capturing the landscape accompanied by a haunting musical score by French composer and conductor Maurice Jarre, with whom he was also collaborating again. Jarre notably won Academy Awards for the “grand, sweeping themes” for both films. Sharif’s role is largely “passive” and his eyes are “the mirror of reality we ourselves see.”

Scenes from Funny Girl

Decades later Halliburton was reminded of the visual Sharif presents in the film when she meets him as a cheeky octogenarian, “the cheekbones like ridges along cliffs, the taunting imperfection of the gap-toothed smile, those eyes whose glittering fury was captured so strikingly by Lean in the scene from Doctor Zhivago where he watches the Cossacks slaughter peaceful demonstrators.”

During filming, the actor reportedly went through a daily routine of hair-straightening and skin-waxing to disguise his Egyptian looks and later said that the film left him on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Sharif was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his intense and yet subtle portrayal.

When the film’s leading lady Julie Christie prpositioned him, Sharif turned her down, citing her fondness for fried egg sandwiches as the reason. But the slavish attention (from actresses and fans alike) destroyed his marriage. Convinced that he would not have the strength to remain faithful, he told Faten that he wanted a divorce—while she was still young enough to remarry. They separated in 1965. He always described her as ‘the love of my life’ and often declared that no other woman ever won his heart. Faten was not so romantic or self-destructive — she married again, to a doctor,” writes Halliburton.

Premiere of Funny Girl in 1968

Moreover, travel restrictions imposed by President Nasser in the form of exit visas forced Sharif to start living in Europe year round for the sake of his career and the subsequent estrangement sealed the fate of the marriage. The couple eventually got amicably divorced in 1974 and remained on good terms till the end.

Sharif found himself at a crossroads in his life at this point, going from a family man to a committed bachelor living in European hotels for the rest of his life. “From the age of 31, I have lived in hotels,” he said. It was at this point that he was cast in Funny Girl opposite singing sensation Barbra Streisand in her first film role.

Barbra was born in the now hipster neighbourhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, in ‘42 to Emanuel Streisand a high school teacher who died when she was only 15 months old. Barbra had a painful, poverty stricken and traumatic childhood. Her mother Diana raised her and her older brother, Sheldon, by working as a school secretary. The were in such dire stratits financially that they had to move in with Barbra’s grandparents’ cramped three room apartment to make ends meet. The two children would crawl under a table to avoid being beaten by their irascible grandfather. It was a deprived childhood and Barbra played with a hot water bottle, pretending it was a doll. One summer when she was away at Jewish camp in ‘49, she returned to find out that her mother had married Louis Kind, a divorced used-car salesman. A half-sister, Rosalind, was born in ‘51.  Barbra was lonely and continuously taunted by her step father who called her “beast” and Rosalind “beauty” and the other children also rejected her because she was so plain looking, skinny, cross eyed with a big hooked nose and acne.

With Don Johnson

Barbra attended the Jewish Bais Yakov School, where she sang in the choir and then Erasmus Hall High School where she met her future collaborator, Neil Diamond. The awkward looking girl who the other kids said had “a big beak” and who described herself as “a real ugly kid” was never asked out for a date neither on New Year’s Eve nor to the prom, so to get attention and prove a point, she rebelliously dated a black boy. Additionally, “her voice got her attention when she sang on the stoop of the apartment building or in apartment hallways,” writes Caroline Howe for the Daily Mail.

“I hadda be great….I always knew I hadda be famous and rich – the best. Beautiful I’m not and never will be,” Neal Gabler quotes her in his biography Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity and Power. “I know if I had a father, I would probably be happily married and have two or three children,” she said.

While still in high school, Barbra would take the bus to Manhattan to study acting where, at the age of 15, she met Anita and Alan Miller of the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village. Wiley Barbra negotiated a deal with the couple, babysitting in exchange for acting lessons. After graduation, at only 16, she moved to Manhattan in ’60, working in menial jobs and sleeping on cots randomly at friends’ apartments. When hungry, she would go home for a home cooked meal. Her mother horrified by her daughter’s “gypsy-like lifestyle,” begged her to give up trying to get into show business, saying she didn’t have the looks for it. But she burnt with a desire to prove her mother wrong.  “My desires were strengthened by wanting to prove to my mother that I could be a star,” biographer Karen Swenson quotes her.

Tennis star Andre Agassi said, “So what if she’s twenty-eight years older? We’re simpatico, and the public outcry only adds spice to our connection…. Dating Barbra Streisand is like wearing Hot Lava”

Howe writes: “One theatre company owner said, ‘She’s very talented, but God, she’s so ugly. What are we going to do with her?’ She worked hard but was described as being voracious, wary, distrustful and self-interested.

“She didn’t have time for civility and never expressed gratitude even when someone cast her in a play,” said actor Barry Dennen. Dennen and his partner, both Jewish and gay, taught her how to dress, use makeup and eat with proper table manners. She learned how to cover up her insecurity on stage by studying the flamboyance of drag queens. More importantly, Dennen exposed Streisand to his vast record collection of chanteuses like Billie Holiday and Édith Piaf. He is responsible for developing her peculiar brand of mezzo soprano operatic voice combined with a pop singing style. Barbra realized that in order to achieve her dream of becoming an actress, she would first have to gain recognition being a singer, a formula Madonna adopted decades later.

Ladies’ man & legendary lothario

Holding the Venice Film Festival Career Golden Lion Award

When Omar Sharif
started losing consistently, at times more than $1 million in a single night, he stopped playing bridge, thinking he had dementia, but it turned out to be a worse degenerative disease, Alzheimer’s

According to biographer Christopher Nickens, Barbra began creating different emotional characters when performing, going from singing with a dramatic voice to a lighthearted one. She worked on her stage presence and started conversing with the audience between songs, ala Frank Sinatra, and even injecting humor into her performance. Her cabaret act became quite popular, especially with audiences at gay clubs who understood what it was to be different and identified with her. Barbra started being compared to widely adored Judy Garland. As Barbra became more famous, she dropped Dennen and never even acknowledged his help. Dennen said later that she had a habit of “cutting out of her life people who were not directly relevant to her success.”

Her first manager, Ted Rozar also said bitterly, “If you were of no value to her, that little switch went off in her head and she treated you like s**t.”

She worked upstate theatres in the summer and returned to New York to sing about being “the girl the guys never looked at her twice, the invisible woman.” She became a Broadway star playing “an outsized Jewish mieskeit” (ugly person) in ’62, making it there with the help of “the Jewish entertainment mafia.” The Barbra Streisand Album released in ’63 and is now a classic. Overnight she became the top-selling female vocalist in the U.S. The album became a Top 10 Gold Record and received two Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. At the time, she was the youngest artist to receive the honor. It was the turning point in her career “when she went from being a New York phenomenon to a performer with a national reputation.”

“When I’m good, when I’m pleased with my performance, I feel powerful. I forget about being an ugly duckling,” Barbra said.

She started living with actor Elliott Gould. He was twenty-three to her nineteen. “She scared me but I really dug her. I think I was the first person who ever did,” Gould said. They wed in ’63 and had a son together, Jason. But Gould’s career couldn’t keep up with her meteoric rise and they divorced in 1971 after a two-year trial separation. Gould loved Barbra unreservedly, but he thought he seemed desperate. “One side of Barbra needed men. The other was disdainful of men and competitive toward them,” later adding that she didn’t know how to love.

Additionally, she suffered from debilitating stage fright, which is why she avoided concerts and preferred Broadway performances, starring in Funny Girl for more than two years on Broadway and in ’66 at the Prince of Wales Theater, London. So successful were the runs that she made her big-screen debut in the film version of the play, starring as singer Fanny Brice, while Sharif plays her gambler husband Nicky Arnstein.

Sharif admitted later that he did not find Barbra at all attractive when he first met her, but her appeal soon overwhelmed him: “About a week from the moment I met her, I was madly in love with her. I thought she was the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen in my life…I found her physically beautiful, and I started lusting after this woman.”

Streisand said the romance of the film went to her head, “It’s hard to stop loving someone when the director yells cut. Fact and fiction got mixed up, and I think we both lost our heads for a while.”

The affair lasted for only four months, the duration of the filming. “I realised that I couldn’t have been in love, because it didn’t hurt when the relationship finished,” Sharif recalled.

A blog post in Retroculturati describes the affair: “Of his wives and lovers it was his affair with Barbra Streisand that would cause by far the biggest global stir.

“Starring alongside each other for the first time on the musical Funny Girl in 1967 in a production by Columbia Studios in which all of the investors were Jewish along with production staff that was pro-Israeli and a media heavily biased towards Israel, the two became romantically involved despite a huge protest from both of their home countries. Even though his own government banned his film the producers stuck by him and he completed the film. In June of 1967, the Israeli-Egyptian Six Day War broke out and in the midst of the huge political and military fall-out came a publicity still of the Egyptian Omar Sharif kissing the Jewish Barbra Streisand. This incensed governments, the public and worst of all perhaps, the wrath of Streisand’s Jewish mother!

“When Sharif met Streisand they were both married. Her marriage to fellow actor Elliot Gould was shaky and despite Streisand’s apparent appalling prima donna behaviour on set she and Sharif hit it off and began an affair, which lasted as long as the making of the movie. The backlash from the movie and their affair should not be underestimated. Streisand blames her not performing on stage for twenty seven years after this because of the stress at the time that caused her to forget the lines to three of her songs at a concert in front of 150,000 people in Central Park. She had been guaranteed a heavy police presence because of the furor of the movie and her affair but a surprise visit by Soviet politician Alexei Kosygin reduced the protection from three hundred officers to thirty making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

“The end of filming marked the end of the affair. Streisand later said that given the charged atmosphere of making the film it was difficult to put those feelings to one side once the day’s filming had ended. Sharif was always very complimentary about Streisand but soon got over the break-up by dating his next co-star, Catherine Deneuve followed by Barbara Bouchet after her semi-naked appearance in Playboy.”

Despite the tense political atmosphere, the film went on to become a huge hit. Barbra won the 1968 Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance and was named Star of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners. Her perfectionism had paid off and the highly charged sexual tension between the stars and the ensuing controversy only fuelled the ticket sales.

Other mega hits in which Barbra has starred include The Way We Were, A Star is Born, Yentl based on a short story by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, which she also directed, as she did The Prince of Tides based on a Pat Conroy novel. From ‘69 to ‘80, she appeared in the Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, the annual motion picture exhibitors poll for a total of 10 times, often as the only woman on the list. Streisand is the highest selling female recording artist of all time, and has won awards and acclaim in every medium that she’s worked in. She has recorded 50 studio albums with Columbia Records and has had No. 1 albums in each of the last four decades, the greatest longevity for any solo recording artist, and has sold a combined 250 million records worldwide. She is the only artist to have earned honors from all the major award institutions, including two Academy Awards, one Tony Award, five Emmys, 10 Grammys, 13 Golden Globes, a Cable ACE Award, the University of Georgia’s George Foster Peabody Award and the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and has been a staunch and vocal Democrat, as well as working for Jewish causes, fostering Jewish-Arab relations, equal rights for African Americans and HIV fundraising through her sporadic but  sold out concerts.

For a plain, indeed self proclaimed “ugly kid” she has had relationships with some of the world’s hottest men including pro football quarterback Joe Namath, countless leading men such as Ryan O’Neal, Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson, Liam Neeson, Don Johnson, news anchor Peter Jennings, Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau (father of PM Justin Trudeau) who wanted to make her Canada’s First Lady, and even tennis champion Andre Agassi. In his 2009 autobiography, Agassi writes: “We agree that we’re good for each other, and so what if she’s twenty-eight years older? We’re simpatico, and the public outcry only adds spice to our connection. It makes our friendship feel forbidden, taboo – another piece of my overall rebellion. Dating Barbra Streisand is like wearing Hot Lava.”

Christopher Andersen in his new book, Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate and the Throne, writes that Prince Charles as a young man had an immense crush on Barbra Streisand. Even at Cambridge University he had a poster of the star on the wall of his room. In 1974, Charles even visited the set of the movie Funny Girl where he spent 20 minutes with her. Flash forward 20 years, he was back in Los Angeles and they had a secret rendezvous at the Bel Air Hotel that no one knows about, except Diana, who knew all about it.

Quite a roster of lovers for an awkward girl with a large Jewish nose from Brooklyn that even her mother had difficulty loving! Whoever said persistence doesn’t pay off should take a page out of Barbra Streisand’s book.

Barbra said that 1980s onwards she wanted a break from showbiz and just wanted to live like a house wife and a real woman. She sought therapy for her demons and the havoc that her traumatic childhood had wreaked on her self image and romantic relationships. Then, one night while dining with friends at hotspot Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills in 1996, she met actor James Brolin (father of actor Josh Brolin), who is now 75 plus. They sat down and started talking. “After ten minutes I was a goner, and after two hours, I knew we’d get married someday,” Brolin said. Within two years, they were married. The couple are very happy and contentedly and live together in her Malibu dream estate that is made up of four buildings—the mill house, the barn, Grandma’s house and the main house—on three acres of property.

Sharif was not so lucky.  In his heyday, he indulged in a string of short lived romances with such beauties as Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardener, Sophia Loren, Anouk Aimee, Catherine Deneuve, Julie Andrews and Tuesday Welds, among countless others. He was quite the lothario! However, he never remarried, stating that he never fell in love with another woman again after Faten.

Though “his striking good looks won him many admirers and lovers but towards the end of his life he lived alone with his gambling addiction. Whilst he had his own family, he chose not to settle in a relationship and always insisted it was through personal choice,” writes Halliburton.

 In the late 90s, Sharif began declining film offers, and sadly said that he had lost his “self-respect and dignity.” Sharif said about his Hollywood career, “It gave me glory, but it gave me loneliness also, and a lot of missing my own land, my own people and my own country.”

Christopher Stevens writes in an article for The Daily Mail: “The story of Egyptian actor Omar Sharif is perhaps the saddest, loneliest tale in all of movie history. But it has also been a life overflowing with wealth, adoration and affairs with the world’s most desirable women. Sharif squandered his good fortune — with divorce from the only woman he ever truly loved, an illegitimate child he refused to acknowledge, millions lost at the gaming tables, a glittering career abandoned and outbursts of violence….It always appeared as if he had the most enviable existence. After decades spent living alone in luxury hotels in Paris or London, staying up till 5 a.m. every night at the casino or the bar, the actor has now returned to Egypt. But this is no homecoming: he still lives in a hotel, at a Red Sea tourist resort. His life, it seems, is as rootless and lonely as ever.”

His most demanding mistress of all proved to be his gambling addiction that took hold of him. Stevens writes, gradually, “all Sharif cared about was pocketing fees for roles, however dire, so he could pursue his twin passions — playing bridge and breeding racehorses. ‘I don’t think I could live without a deck of cards in my hands,’ he declared, when asked on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs in 1978 what luxury he would need most as a castaway. But the cards and the casinos were bankrupting him.

“After losing £750,000 in one night at roulette, he was forced to sell his house in Paris, and announced: ‘I don’t own anything at all apart from a few clothes. I’m all alone and completely broke. Everything could have been so different if only I had found the right woman.’

“His gambling addiction, he admitted, was madness, but he could not stop. He blamed boredom, and the loneliness of living out of a suitcase. His agent became used to Sharif’s desperate calls, demanding work so that he could pay urgent debts. Often, the actor even had to reverse the call charges. But however many shoddy movies he made, he was always ‘one film behind my debts’.
He hated the roles. Though he could act in six languages — English, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Greek — he had an accent in all of them, and so was always cast as a foreigner: a Sultan, a Spanish priest, a Mexican cowboy, or Genghis Khan. He doted on his son Tarek and adored his grandchildren, whose mockery of his dreadful films made him ditch acting in the mid-Nineties.

“Gambling was not so easy to renounce. After losing more than £20,000 at the Enghien-les-Bains casino in Paris in 2003, he head butted a policeman and was given a suspended prison sentence. It wasn’t the first time he had been threatened with jail for his temper: he was arrested in Greece for smashing up a restaurant. At a hotel car park in Beverly Hills, he brawled with an attendant, while four years ago he lashed out at a female fan who was badgering him for a photograph. But his womanising was over. He had quit a 100-a-day cigarette habit, too, following a heart attack in his hotel room in 1994: as he collapsed on the bed in Paris’s George V hotel, in agony, he was unable to think of anyone he could call for help.”

Halliburton writes, at one time, “he was one of the world’s top 50 bridge players – the Omar Sharif Bridge Circus played exhibition matches all over the world – and he once received a late-night invitation to play with the Shah of Iran and his wife.” Sharif even authored books on the subject, like Play Bridge With Omar Sharif (1990) and Omar Sharif Talks Bridge (2004). “Does he play now? ‘No,’ he says soberly. ‘I stopped six years ago when I stopped being good enough.’ (He says speaking of his violent incident.)  He has also cheerfully acknowledged that he has made a lot of films he wasn’t proud of to help finance his bridge habit. He’s had many strong friendships throughout his life, not least with Hosni Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne. ‘I thought it was right that Mubarak went,’ he says, ‘but I always found his wife very intelligent and interesting to talk to.’”

In the new millennium, Sharif’s career enjoyed a brief resurgence with Monsieur Ibrahim (2003), in which he portrays a Muslim shopkeeper who befriends a Jewish youth in ‘60s Paris for which he won France’s César Award. The same year, he received the Venice Film Festival’s Audience Award and the Career Golden Lion prize for Achievement in Film. The following year he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dubai International Film Festival.

“He still had a reputation as an insatiable lover but the truth, he said, was more mundane: usually, he preferred to go for a walk,” writes Stevens. “In 2012, he turned 80. He slipped into a melancholy routine: sleep till noon, bathe and walk the streets of Paris on his own. ‘I have no friends in Paris,’ he said last year. ‘I want someone to take me out in the evenings.’”

He spent his last days with Tarek and his two grandsons Omar, also an actor, and Karim. When Faten died, aged 83, Tarek was forced to admit that Sharif suffered not from dementia but Alzheimer’s. In his final years, in Egypt, Sharif remembered he was an actor, but could no longer distinguish one film from another. When he did remember he deprecatingly said that most of them were “rubbish.”

Omar Sharif followed his beloved Faten to the grave, dying of a heart attack less than six months after her in July 2015 at a hospital in Cairo, aged 83. Befittingly, his funeral was held at the Grand Mosque of Mushir Tantawi in Cairo, attended by family, friends and Egyptian actors. His casket was draped in the Egyptian flag on top of a black shroud, and he was laid to rest at the El-Sayeda Nafisa Cemetery.

Looking back on their whirlwind affair, Barbra said, “He was one hell of a guy.”

BEHIND THE CAMERA ON FUNNY GIRL

By Andrea Passafiume

For Turner Classic Movies (TCM)

William Wyler, Herbert Ross and the cast of Funny Girl rehearsed for weeks during the summer of 1967 at Columbia Studios in Hollywood. Almost immediately Omar Sharif found himself at the center of a controversy that nearly got him replaced in the film. In June the Israeli-Egyptian Six Day War broke out, which according to William Wyler, “sent jitters through Hollywood’s Jewish community.” As Omar Sharif elaborates in his 1976 autobiography, “All the investments in the production were Jewish. The atmosphere of the studio was pro-Israeli and my co-star was Jewish. Most of the newspapers backed Israel. And I was an Egyptian.”

Panic gripped the studio over the politics of the situation. Some people wanted Sharif removed from Funny Girl. Others thought that Sharif should issue a public statement condemning Egypt. Even Barbra Streisand’s mother made her feelings against Sharif known. “My daughter isn’t going to work with any Egyptian!” she said according to Sharif. Producer Ray Stark was ready to break Sharif’s contract when William Wyler, who was also Jewish, stepped in as the voice of reason. “We’re in America, the land of freedom,” he said according to Sharif, “and you’re ready to make yourselves guilty of the same things we’re against? Not hiring an actor because he’s Egyptian is outrageous. If Omar doesn’t make the film, I don’t make it either!” Sharif kept his job.

Just prior to shooting, Barbra Streisand took a short break in June to fly back East to perform her famous concert in New York’s Central Park. In July, Funny Girl was ready to roll. Everything was going smoothly until a publicity photo of Omar Sharif and Barbra Streisand kissing was released to the newspapers. With the emotions of the Six Day War still running high, the Egyptian press began a campaign to get Sharif’s citizenship revoked over the kiss. The Egyptian headline read: “Omar Kisses Barbra, Egypt Angry.” When asked to respond to the controversy, Barbra Streisand tried to make light of it. “Egypt angry!” she said. “You should hear what my Aunt Sarah said!”

The controversy eventually died down, but the chemistry between Streisand and Sharif did not. Though both were married at the time, the two began an affair while making Funny Girl that lasted for the duration of the production. “Barbra Streisand, who struck me as being ugly at first,” said Sharif, “gradually cast her spell over me. I fell madly in love with her talent and her personality. The feeling was mutual for four months – the time it took to shoot the picture.” With Streisand’s husband Elliott Gould back in New York to take an acting job, the two were free to share romantic evenings and weekends together. Though their relationship didn’t last, the affair would ultimately contribute to the breakup of Streisand’s already shaky marriage to Gould. William Wyler, who knew about the affair, tried to channel their real-life chemistry into their performances.

Those involved with Funny Girl said that she alienated with behavior that was often described as “controlling,” “rude” and “demanding.” There were reports that Streisand was chronically late and that she constantly kept everyone waiting. Some said that she would ask to re-shoot scenes that were already done and try to control every aspect of the production from the lighting design to what sort of shot was needed to who did her hair. “Here was this young whippersnapper,” said Assistant Director Jack Roe, “telling a very noted director how to do his job.” The majority of the extended cast and crew reportedly found her aloof, self-absorbed and inconsiderate. “I thought she was rude during the whole shoot,” said Roe. “I didn’t like the way she treated people, from Wyler and (cinematographer Harry) Stradling all the way to her personal maid, Gracie.” According to some, Harry Stradling threatened to walk off the picture unless Streisand stopped trying to dictate how he should photograph her. Screenwriter Isobel Lennart famously described working with Streisand as “a deflating ego-crushing experience.”

“With me she worked desperately hard on her part. She kept trying to improve herself; she worried about how she looked; she would come on the set in the morning and ask if we could do a scene over again. She was totally dedicated. She trusted me, and I trusted her.” Adding to that Wyler later said, “I’d much rather work with someone like Barbra, a perfectionist insisting on giving her best at all times and expecting it of everyone else, than a star who doesn’t give a hoot.”

I think I knew more about Funny Girl than Mr. Wyler. I had played it a thousand times and had read all the revisions of all the scripts…But once we started…well, it couldn’t have been a more creative relation…We tried different things and experimented and so forth. It was stimulating and fun and good things came out.” She added later, “He was never threatened by my ideas. After Funny Girl, I was thrown by any director who ever was threatened because Willie used to get a kick out of them. He’d use them, not use them, laugh at me, not laugh at me. I mean, he was a wonderful person to collaborate with.”

In fact, Wyler’s professional relationship with Barbra Streisand was such that he allowed her unprecedented access to his directing process, often letting her watch dailies with him to see how her performance was shaping up. Co-star Anne Francis found this aspect of the director-star relationship threatening. “Every day, Barbra would see the rushes,” said Francis, “and the next day my part was cut or something else was cut. Barbra ran the whole show…She had the Ziegfeld girls’ scenes changed – one day she told Wyler to move a girl standing next to her because she was too pretty, and the girl wound up in the background. Eventually, the Ziegfeld girls’ scenes were eliminated altogether.”

Challenging as she was, several on the set also agreed that many of Streisand’s instincts were good ones, and that she was often right about things. Her perfectionism, some believed, was merely the result of insecurity. If she was demanding of everyone around her, she was twice as demanding of herself. “She fusses over things,” said Wyler, “she’s terribly concerned about how she looks, with the photography, the camera, the makeup, the wardrobe, the way she moves, reads a line. She’d tell the cameraman that one of the lights was out – way up on the scaffold. If the light that was supposed to be on her was out, she saw it. She’s not easy, but she’s difficult in the best sense of the word – the same way I’m difficult.” Herbert Ross, who staged the film’s musical numbers, added to that. “We spent hours shooting her to test her in different lights, different make up, different hairdos,” he said. “I was with her the day she saw the first set of dailies. She was terrified – it was the first time she’d ever seen herself on film. Well, onscreen she looked a miracle. How could anyone have known that her skin was going to have that brilliant reflective surface that she was going to look radiant – that was just a wonderful plus.” Omar Sharif explained, “You have to understand, she’s a kid from Brooklyn…She didn’t just think she was plain – she thought she was ugly. So no wonder that insecurity…Those weren’t rumors that she caused trouble during the filming of Funny Girl. There was trouble – in wardrobe, in makeup, and so on. But when the whole film sinks or swims on you, you’re in trouble.”

For the last scene in the film where Fanny sings “My Man” after she has been told goodbye by Nicky Arnstein, William Wyler did something unusual. Normally, actors in musicals lip-synched to pre-recorded music for their singing scenes. Streisand had tried to do that for “My Man”, as she did with the other numbers in Funny Girl, but the scene, which was supposed to be emotional and heartbreaking, wasn’t working. He and Streisand decided to have her sing live in order for her to truly be in the moment. During the scene, Wyler had Omar Sharif stand behind a nearby curtain and talk to Streisand between takes. Their affair was ending as the Funny Girl shoot came to an end, and Wyler knew that Sharif’s presence would have an effect on her performance. “He wanted him around to help build up her sadness,” said Robert Swink. “They must’ve done at least ten takes. Willie shot the thing live and recorded it live. It was pretty emotional for her.”

Shooting wrapped on Funny Girl in the Fall of 1967. At the wrap party William Wyler gave Barbra Streisand a director’s megaphone, according to William Wyler’s 1973 authorized biography, “in mock recognition of her devotion to every aspect of filmmaking including directing.” Streisand gave Wyler an 18th century gold watch inscribed “TO MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME.” The two parted ways with a mutual respect. “I was very fortunate to have Willie as my first director,” said Streisand. “What was amazing is that when he showed me the first cut of the movie, I would say ninety-five percent of the moments I had picked in my head was in there. It was extraordinary. He just knew when it was right. He used the right moments all the time.”

Funny Girl premiered on September 19, 1968 at the Criterion Theater in New York. With everything that Barbra Streisand had riding on the film, she couldn’t have asked for a more smashing debut. Funny Girl was a huge hit – the highest grossing film of 1968 – and the reviews were unanimous that Barbra Streisand was a superstar. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress. On April 14, 1969 Barbra Streisand took home the Oscar® for her performance, tying with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter (1968). Taking the stage in her now infamously see-through black Arnold Scaasi outfit, Streisand looked at the Oscar® and said, “Hello, Gorgeous!” mimicking her famous first line in Funny Girl. Streisand was indeed a movie star.

By Mahlia Lone

The Muslim world is proud of such a moderate, poised and progressive couple as King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan who did not anticipate ruling Jordan, as Abdullah was chosen by King Hussein for succession just a fortnight before his death. The royal couple has not let their sudden rise to power and prominence go to their heads and neither do they indulge in affectations or pretentions like many commoners. We can all learn from that. Additionally, King Abdullah is the only Jordanian monarch to date that has only married once. This is the story of the couple’s true love, enduring marriage and working partnership

Now known by friends and colleagues as “the epitome of modern royalty,” Rania al-Yassin was born on 31st August 1970 in Kuwait to average, middle class Palestinian parents Dr. Faisal Sedki al-Yassin, a paediatrician, and Ilham, a home-maker. Rania led “an anonymous and normal life” with brother Majid and sister Dina up till her marriage. The al-Yassins had family in the West Bank that they would frequently visit. She attended the New English School in Kuwait, then received a degree in Business Administration with straight As from the American University in Cairo, where Rania was also voted as the most beautiful student by her college newspaper. Though only 5’4” she received a modelling offer, but her parents were reluctant to trust the modelling agent. At the start of the 1991 Gulf War in 1991, her family, along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, was forced to flee Kuwait as Palestinians were accused of supporting Saddam Hussein during the conflict. They relocated to Amman. Half of Jordan’s population is in fact of Palestinian descent. In Amman, she and 200 other applicants took a Citibank entry exam, which she topped and got the job. Just five months later, Rania took a different job marketing computers for Apple Inc. Around this time, she is reputed to have gotten a nose job and suddenly went from pretty to beautiful.

Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, born 30 January 1962, is King Hussein’s eldest son from his British-born second wife Princess Muna al-Hussein (nee Antoinette Avril Gardiner). Although Abdullah was named Crown Prince shortly after his birth, King Hussein took the title away from the three old toddler and bestowed it on his own brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal, for reasons of political stability in 1965. Oblivious to these changes, young Abdullah began his schooling at the Islamic Educational College in Amman and was sent first to St Edmund’s School, Hindhead, in England and then the U.S. to attend Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. He loved his time at the Deerfield Academy so much that decades later when he became King, he created the King’s Academy, a sister institution, in Jordan. He hired Deerfield Headmaster Eric Widmer to lead it, along with many other Deerfield staff.

In 1980, Abdullah attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was subsequently commissioned into the British Army as a Second Lieutenant, serving for a year as a troop commander in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. In 1982, Abdullah enrolled at Pembroke College, Oxford University, for a one-year Special Studies course in Middle Eastern Affairs. He returned to Jordan after that and joined the Royal Jordanian Army, serving as an officer in the 40th Armored Brigade, and undergoing a parachuting and freefall course. In 1985, Abdullah attended the Armored Officer’s Advanced Course at Fort Knox, and in 1986, he was made a Captain and commander of a tank company in the 91st Armored Brigade. He also served with the Royal Jordanian Air Force in its Anti-Tank Wing, and was trained to fly Cobra attack helicopters. Finally, in 1987, Abdullah attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

Prince Abdullah had a reputation for being a real ladies’ man. A general in Jordan’s Army, he was quite the daredevil, jumping out of planes, flying helicopters and driving fast cars, while Rania was a focused, bookish girl who wanted to have her own business. In January ’93, a new colleague took 22 year old Rania to a dinner party hosted by Prince Abdullah’s sister where their eyes met across a crowded room. Sparks flew and the connection was instant. “The minute Rania walked in, I knew it right there and then,” said Abdullah in a 2005 interview to People magazine. “It was love at first sight.”

“Rania was more circumspect. ‘I knew he was King Hussein’s son, and I was a bit wary of that,’” she said.

A whirlwind courtship began, the Prince took Rania on motorbike rides across the desert, waterskiing on the Red Sea and flying in hair-raising helicopter rides. Friends said that the soldier Prince seemed to bring Rania out of her shell and she seemed to tame his wild ways. In an interview to 60 Minutes, she said she was attracted to her husband’s sense of humor and down to earth nature despite him belonging to the Royal Hashemite family that can trace back its lineage 2000 years and has descended from the Prophet’s (PBUH) line.

On 24th January 1999 just two weeks before his death, King Husseing named Abdullah Crown Prince (heir to the throne).  Unlike in Europe where the law of primogeniture exists whereby a fiefdom, estate or kingdom is passed from father to son, in Jordan the monarch appoints his own heir apparent….This was an unexpected turn of events that nobody had foreseen. Abdullah and Rania had been living in an apartment gifted to them by the King on their wedding and no thought of the throne had crossed their mind

“I think he was quite interested, pursued it and it happened,” recalled Rania. She says her own commoner’s background allowed the romance to blossom naturally: “Nobody knew who I was, which was good.” King Hussein himself reportedly drove the 31 year old Prince to the home of Rania’s parents so he could propose just two months after their first meeting. With the King and her family looking on, she accepted. Three months later the pair married on June 10. “It was quick,” said Rania.

Their wedding was a glittering affair with royalty flying in from around the world to attend. Rania chose British designer Bruce Oldfield to make her two wedding gowns. Reportedly inspired from the embellishments on Syrian formal dresses exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Oldfield added heavy gold detailing to the gown, made a matching hair band and gloves that she wore to the ceremony. The 80s power suit style dress, reminiscent of the American TV show Dynasty, had exaggerated gold embroidered lapels, short sleeves, and a large belt. The skirt was voluminous and ended in a train at the back. A long veil covered her face during the Nikah ceremony. Her towering hairdo was so tall that she had difficulty getting in and out of the car. On top of that, she wore a crystal headband rather than a borrowed tiara. For the reception, Rania changed into a sleeveless v-neck, low back gown that was also embellished and made another elaborated up-do. The Prince wore his Army ceremonial uniform.

Content to serve in the Army, Abdullah assumed command of Jordan’s Special Forces the same year as his wedding and became a Major General in ’98. King Hussein had occupied the throne since his 21st birthday in ’53 for nearly half a century before dying of cancer in 1999. On 24th January that year just two weeks before his death, he named Abdullah Crown Prince (heir to the throne).  Unlike in Europe where the law of primogeniture exists whereby a fiefdom, estate or kingdom is passed from father to son, in Jordan the monarch appoints his own heir apparent. Until then, Hussein’s brother Prince Hassan had been next in line, but the latter’s Pakistani born wife Princess Sarwat (see older issue of GT: volume 12, issue 4, February 16th 2016) went about redecorating the Palace in anticipation of the King’s death while he lay in hospital in the U.S. much to the ailing monarch’s disgust. She also didn’t get along with the King’s American born wife Queen Noor, who wanted her son Prince Hamzah to eventually succeed to the throne. The King thereby asked Abdullah to name his half brother Prince Hamzah as his heir. This was an unexpected turn of events that nobody had foreseen. The couple had been living in an apartment gifted to them by King Hussein on their wedding and no thought of the throne had crossed their mind.

On 7th February 1999, upon the death of his father King Hussein, a few hours after the announcement of his father’s death, Abdullah went before an emergency session of the Jordanian National Assembly wearing a red-and-white keffiyeh and the reign of King Abdullah II began. Abdullah is not merely a figurehead as many European monarchs, but is the head of a constitutional monarchy, wielding substantial power. In 2016, he was chosen as the most influential Muslim in the world by Muslims Top 500 listing.

The accession was formally celebrated on June 9th ‘99. The new King and Queen rode through the streets of Amman in the same vintage limo that they drove in on their wedding day (and had also carried the King’s parents on their wedding day) to arrive at Raghadan Palace where the rest of the royal family was waiting. The King, resplendent in his ceremonial military uniform, reviewed a Guard of Honor outside, before greeting dignitaries in front of his throne. He awarded Rania the Al Hussein Ben Ali Medal, the most prestigious medal in Jordan. For the occasion, she wore an embellished gold gown by Elie Saab and Queen Alia’s (King Hussein’s third wife) Cartier tiara on top of a back combed up-do that had her towering over the diminutive King. Because half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, while the other half have descended from Bedouin tribes, the new couple was seen to consolidate the two cultures and unite the country, and the people rejoiced.

The new King made it his priority to embark the country on an aggressive economic liberalization program to stimulate the economy and raise the standard of living. He successfully increased foreign investment from the West and Persian Gulf countries, improved public-private partnerships, and established five free trade zones and Jordan’s flourishing ICT (Information Communications Technology) sector. Incidentally, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, is married to Abdullah’s sister Haya bint Al Hussein. In the next decade, Jordan’s economic growth doubled to 6 per cent annually. King Abdullah II also negotiated a free trade agreement with the U.S., the first for an Arab country. Jordan’s foreign debt to GDP percentage fell from more than 210 per cent in 1990 to 83 per cent by the end of 2005, a substantial decrease that was described as an “extraordinary achievement” by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2008, Abdullah launched his Decent Housing for Decent Living campaign to provide housing with amenities like health, education and recreation for all citizens. However, despite his best efforts, Jordan is still heavily reliant on foreign aid.

The Queen in her turn has set up child abuse counseling centres under the Jordan River Foundation banner, worked for eradicating honor killings in the country, pushed for better school facilities and mandatory English classes as well as promoted micro-funds for small scale entrepreneurs. In 2000, in recognition of her commitment to the cause of children and youth, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) invited Queen Rania to join its Global Leadership Initiative and work alongside other world leaders, including former South African President Nelson Mandela, to improve the welfare of children. In 2007, she was named UNICEF’s first Eminent Advocate for Children and in  2009, she became Honorary Global Chair of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). Moreover, she has also travelled the world to promote cross cultural and interfaith dialogue to foster greater understanding, tolerance and acceptance. She has used her status to foster understanding in the West about the Arab world, speaking at such high profile forums as the Jeddah Economic Forum, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Skoll Foundation, UK. For this, she received the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe in 2009. Forbes magazine ranked her as one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011.

At the coronation, Rania became the world’s youngest Queen at only 28. A smart, savvy woman, she quickly invested in herself, upping her style quotient to keep up with her high profile position. As a Princess, she looked very typical ‘Arab’, but as Queen she came into her own, toned down her makeup, opted for simple, youthful blow dried hair and a killer designer wardrobe and looks similar now in style to Queen Letizia of Spain. Queen Rania’s daytime style has transformed from business casual to elegant and proper. Following the ‘less is more’ sartorial philosophy, she looks like an affluent European professional mother. In the evenings, she dons only couture by designers, such as Giorgio Armani and Elie Saab with a bit of Hollywood flair thrown in. Her wardrobe has even gotten her a special spot in Vanity Fair magazine’s Top 10 Most Fashionable First Ladies list. Queen Rania was also ranked as the Most Beautiful Consort (or First Lady) by Harpers and Queen magazine in 2011. This helped her gain an audience in the West when she speaks as she is seen as being enlightened and modern. When Queen Rania re-wore her accesion gown ten years later to celebrate the anniversary, the change in her personal style was marked. Not only had she toned down the hair and makeup, but also scaled down the pomp and glitz. Instead of an order and tiara, she wore a crystal belt and pretty headband. She looked approachable, fresh and modern.

The royal couple said that they have worked to remain as grounded as monarchs can be. Abdullah and Rania have become ambassadors for a war torn and battle weary Middle East and advocates for peace and for promoting a progressive social and economic agenda. Her carefully crafted image reflects that. She has received criticism though for trying to fight poverty while wearing designer clothes and boasting a jet-set lifestyle. Queen Rania has stated that she is not opposed to women choosing to wear the hijab of their own volition as long as it is not compulsory and they have not been pressured by other orthodox Muslims. She said, “we should judge women according to what’s going on in their heads rather than what’s on top of their heads!”

Additionally, Rania is warm and connects well not only with Jordanians but all types of people the world over. The Queen was one on the first royals to use social media to connect with the people.“She has a natural ability to reach out,” said Abdullah in an interview, “We really work as a team. She covers areas to which I am unable to dedicate much time.”

Rania said she relies on her background to connect to common Jordanians. “I understand where they are coming from,” she said. “I am a product of this society and I can relate to them.”

“The King chose as a bride someone he considers an equal,” said Prince Zeid bin Raad, a childhood friend of Abdullah’s to a People magazine interveiwer. “He listens to her ideas. They feed each other’s intellectual curiosity. They’re a perfect match, two people that are very comfortable together, who think along the same wavelength.”

In an interview to Caroline Laurent for Elle magazine, Rania said, “The King has the executive and the political and economic power. I work mostly through civil society organizations. But, like in any partnership, in any marriage, you sit over dinner and you talk about your day, and he tells me what he has done and is doing, and sometimes I show him a speech that I have. We always say that we’re each other’s biggest fans and also biggest critics, which is a good partnership!”

She also spends plenty of quality time with her four children: Prince Hussein who has replaced Hamzah as Crown Prince and has just graduated from Georgetown University in the U.S., Princess Iman, who is currently studying at the same University and who travels with her mother to royal weddings and other high profile events, Princess Salma and Prince Hashem, who are both still in school. “I make it a point and find comfort in tucking them into bed at night, reading them their favourite bedtime stories and reciting verses from the Koran to them as they sleep,” she said in the same interview. Though she has a full time nanny and tutor for helping the kids with their homework, Rania likes to prepare simple meals for her children herself with the girls helping her, while Abdullah barbecues. Having given the old Palace to Queen Noor for her use, though she mostly lives abroad now, the couple have made a new Palace for themselves, which Rania has had done up in a contemporary style. The family favourite holiday destinations are London and the Jordanian resort of Aqaba, but her priorities are family and work. “It is a constant juggling act. Achieving that balance is about keeping some of the balls up in the air most of the time,” she said.

“We make sure to go to restaurants or go catch a movie somewhere and drive our own cars,’ said Rania, who often picks up her children from school driving a Mercedes SUV with a security detail trailing her. Safety issues are always a concern as the late King Hussein, who faced opposition for his moderate views, survived several assassination attempts but “it’s not something I think about on a day-to-day basis,” she said.

“I definitely make a point of having a relationship with my children, and building trust. Especially as they get older, it’s important that they feel that they can come back to me if they have any issues; I really want to have that bond, not lose it. For me, it’s a top priority, because even if I succeed in everything else, and I fail at raising my children, then I feel that I’ve failed, you know? So, at the end of the day, my children are my top priority, and that’s why I try to make it, as much as I can, a natural upbringing. For the most part, at least, I try to keep our home a sanctuary. And that’s where I can sort of make sure the environment is as normal as can be.

“I always say about the veil: when I choose something to wear, I realize that I’m not just dressing for myself, especially when I am abroad, I’m representing my country, I’m representing my people, so I have to always make sure that, I’m representing them the best way I possibly can. And also, sometimes I’m also representing a cause or I’m going for a particular purpose so I have to be dressed appropriately for that purpose. Whether I am going to visit a Bedouin village or whether I’m attending a speech and a conference in France you always have to think of the purpose.

“’We have the culture of protectiveness of women— that you always have to protect the women, and sometimes this leads to dependency, so we have to basically encourage our children, our girls especially, to be more confident, more courageous, you know, to take strides. We should not only encourage it, we should expect it from them. There’s a saying that ‘A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.’ You have educated women, but they’re not working. You invest so much in educating them and you don’t reap the benefits of your investment,’” advises wise and intelligent Queen Rania. Who would not like to emulate this beautiful, stylish, intelligent, savvy and wonderful wife, mother and Queen!

By Mahlia Lone

The Shah had three wives, but only one compelling love: power 

The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century Pahlavi Dynasty of Iran

Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty was not an ancient royal house; it was specifically created by Great Britain after World War I, to halt Bolshevik Russia’s influence in Iran and to safeguard British interests in India. In fact, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the first Shah of Persia (as it was then known), was born in a village in 1878. His mother was a Muslim from Georgia, and his father was a Major in the 7th-Savadkuh Regiment of the Persian Army and fought in the Anglo Prussian War in 1856. Reza too became a soldier, like his father, and in 1921 was promoted by British General Ironside to the rank of Brigadier General to lead the Persian Cossack Brigade, thus becoming the last and only Persian commander of the brigade. His mission was to march on Tehran to prevent the Red Army that had already penetrated the countryside from taking over the weak Qajar dynasty’s government in Tehran. Reza became the Commander-in-Chief of the Persian Army after he was successful in wresting control of Tehran. By 1923, the British wanted Reza Shah to create a centralized power base in the country. He was thereby appointed Prime Minister by Persia’s Constituent Assembly in 1925 after amending the country’s 1906 Constitution and became the de facto ruler. Ahmed Shah Qajar, the previous ruler, fled the country and eventually died in exile. Impressed with Kemal Ataturk, Reza Shah was tempted to emulate him and declare the country a republic, but being dictatorial, he decided to establish a constitutional monarchy with the help of Shia clerics. On 15th of December that year, at the age of 47, he took his oath and became Iran’s first Pahlavi Shah. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was proclaimed the Crown Prince at Reza Shah’s coronation on 25th April 1926.

At the age of 11, Mohammad Reza had been sent to Switzerland to study at the Institut Le Rosey boarding school, becoming the first Iranian prince to be sent abroad for education. However, he returned to Iran after four years to attain his high school diploma, after which he attended Tehran’s military academy, and qualified as a pilot. On Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s suggestion to the Shah on a visit to Turkey, a strategic marriage was arranged between Mohammad Reza and Princess Fawzia, daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri, sister of King Farouk I of Egypt. The marriage took place by proxy in 1939 at the Abdeen Palace in Cairo. Reza Shah did not even participate in the ceremony. It was a brief marriage that ended in divorce after Mohammad Raza ascended the throne, though the couple had a daughter together, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi.

Father, Reza Shah Pahlavi

Son, a young Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

Reza Shah spent the next 16 years modernizing his country, including replacing the name Persia with Iran. At the advent of World War II, the Shah declared Iran’s neutrality and the Allied powers were not pleased. They needed Iran as a transport corridor to Russia. Its geographical significance is illustrated by the name “The Bridge of Victory” later given to Iran by British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The Shah felt that Britain and the Soviet Union had opportunistic and exploitative policies towards Iran. He cancelled the contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) to extract, refine and export Iran’s oil. After much negotiation a new contract was signed in 1933 that was also heavily tipped in APOC’s favour, barring Iran to sign a more lucrative contract with another company. On top of that, Germany had become Iran’s largest trading partner prior to WWII. Germany had even consented to sell Iran a steel mill that the country urgently needed. For these reasons, Britain and Soviet Union that had fought over the country less than two decades ago, now joined together to invade it in 1941. Iran’s army barely put up any resistance, leaving Reza Shah no choice but to accept a forced abdication in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza. He was issued a politely worded command by the British stating, “Would His Highness kindly abdicate in favour of his son, the heir to the throne? We have a high opinion of him and will ensure his position. But His Highness should not think there is any other solution.” And just like that again one Shah was summarily dismissed and replaced by another.

Princess Fawzia bint Fuad of Egypt Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi, Fawzia & Mohammad Reza’s only child

Love struck the new and by now divorced Shah. Beautiful, emerald eyed Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari was half German half Irani and the only daughter of Khalil Esfandiary, Iranian Ambassador to West Germany, and his wife, Eva Karl. Soraya had been brought up more as a German under the tutelage of her governess Frau Mantel, followed by a stint at a Swiss finishing school in Montreaux. While she was studying English in London at the age of 16 in 1948, she was befriended by the Shah’s younger sister Princess Shams. A relative of Soraya’s showed her picture to the Shah who became smitten with her. After his very first meeting with her, the Shah asked her father for her hand in marriage. Soon they were engaged and the Shah presented Soraya with a whopping 22.37 carat diamond ring. But his choice of a part Teutonic, liberal minded and Western educated bride was not popular with conservative Iranis. By her own admission in one of her two memoirs, she writes, “I was a dunce—I knew next to nothing of the geography, the legends of my country, nothing of its history, nothing of Muslim religion.”

As early as 1949, an assassination attempt was made on the new Shah that was attributed to the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party, resulting in the banning of that party. It is claimed that the attempt was actually made by a religious fundamentalist member of Fada’iyan-e Islam as the new Shah was considered too Western and too secular. The Shah’s reaction was to expand his constitutional powers and become even more powerful.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran with his bride, Princess Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari

Princess Soraya wore an emerald and diamond parure and tiara to match her green eyes

The Shah married Soraya in 1951 at the Marble Palace that his father had had built. The wedding had been delayed because the bride had been ill from typhoid. She wore a Christian Dior Couture gown from his New Look collection. It had 37 yards of silver lamé studded all over with tens of thousands of pearls, 6,000 diamonds, and 20,000 marabou feathers. It weighed a staggering 44 pounds (20 kilograms). Because she was still weak, the bride had difficulty walking in the heavy dress. Seeing her totter, the thoughtful Shah ordered a lady-in-waiting to cut the petticoats and train to lighten her load. Additionally, the strapless dress had a fitted long sleeve waist length jacket and veil for the Nikkah ceremony. Because the wedding was in Februaury, a full-length white mink cape kept the bride warm in the non-heated palace and she secretly wore woolen socks on her feet, which were hidden by the voluminous skirt. In the evening, for the 2000 people reception, the jacket and veil came off and an emerald and diamond parure from the crown jewels that matched her green eyes added even more sparkle. 5 tonnes of orchids, tulips and carnations had been flown in from Netherlands to do up the palace and the entertainment included a Roman equestrian circus. The couple received such lavish wedding gifts as a mink coat and a desk set glittering with black diamonds sent by Soviet head Joseph Stalin, a Steuben glass Bowl of Legends sent by U.S. President and Mrs. Truman, and silver Georgian candlesticks from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Though the new Queen headed Iran’s charity association, she was very much pampered and even had a pet seal, which she kept in the palace fountain. Just two years later, in 1953, the royal couple fled Tehran for Iraq and Italy after a failed revolution attempt in Iran, but they returned soon after.

The wedding ensemble consisted of a feathered and jewelled gown, fitted, long sleeved, waist length jacket and mink coat all by Christian Dior

Seven years into the marriage, the royal couple was faced with a dilemma. They had come to a crossroads due to Soraya’s inability to have children, a fact confirmed by American doctors. Even the famous American fertility expert Dr. William Masters wasn’t able to help them. Their joint consultation with him has been immortalized in an episode of the TV show Masters of Sex. Though he was very much in love with Soraya, the Shah desperately needed a male heir. Under the Persian constitution, if the Shah had no heir, then the royal line would end. He tried to convince her to let him take a second wife, but Soraya was adamant. In an interview to the New York Times Soraya said that she did not want “the sanctity of marriage” violated and decided that “she could not accept the idea of sharing her husband’s love with another woman.” She added it was with a heavy heart and because he had no choice that the Shah reluctantly divorced her.

At that time of their separation, Soraya issued a statement to the Iranian people from her parents’ home in Germany, stating, “Since His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi has deemed it necessary that a successor to the throne must be of direct descent in the male line from generation to generation to generation, I will with my deepest regret in the interest of the future of the State and of the welfare of the people in accordance with the desire of His Majesty the Emperor sacrifice my own happiness, and I will declare my consent to a separation from His Imperial Majesty.”

Moments Photo courtesy LIFE magazine

On 21st March 1958, Iranian New Year’s Day, the Shah announced his divorce to the Iranian people in a TV and radio broadcasted speech that was broadcast, adding he would not remarry in haste. His voice shook with emotion, clearly he had been crying.

The Shah still loved his ex-wife; he granted Soraya the title Princess of Iran and made sure she received a monthly $7000 payment from the State of Iran. They continued to meet in Europe after their divorce, even though Sorarya had started a film career. She had always harboured a fantasy to be a film star. Despite taking acting lessons, she only managed to appear in two films. Through her new connections, she met the married Italian director Franco Indovina and they started a love affair. Unfortunately, this too ended prematurely with his tragic death in a plane crash only five years later.

Heart-broken Soraya relocated to Paris and bought an apartment on the posh and happening Avenue Montaigne, which sold at her death for $3 million. Soraya travelled, was fond of frequenting the Plaza Athenee Hotel near her home, attended parties thrown by the aristocratic feminist and woman of letters Edmee, Duchess de La Rochefoucauld, who kept a famous salon. She also made friends with her celebrity hair stylist Alexandre Zouari who introduced her to the young, glitzy crowd. But still lonely and depressed, she was called the “Princess with the sad eyes” by those who met her. In 1991, she wrote her second autobiography, Le Palais Des Solitudes (The Palace of Loneliness). She died in 2001 at the age of 69 in Paris. Her body was found by her cleaner.

Soraya appeared in two European films after her divorce from the Shah

Princess Soraya bequeathed her £50 million fortune, including her engagement ring, a 1958 Rolls Royce, countless furs and costly paintings that were all auctioned off to her younger brother and only sibling, Prince Bijan Esfandiary, but he too died only a week later at his home in Cologne. Since they had no living relatives and he had made no will, the entire fortune went to the German state government (and not Iran) where it was used to pay for street lighting, rubbish collection and other public amenities in North Rhine Westphalia where the Prince lived at the time of his death. Perhaps the Irani people were right when they claimed their Queen was more German than Irani.

Meanwhile in 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh had been elected Prime Minister of Iran; in a bold move, he immediately nationalised the country’s petroleum industry after getting a unanimous vote authorising this from the country’s Parliament. The industry had been controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), APOC’s new name, which had been an extremely lucrative venture for the British and also gave them a lot of regional clout. Together the American CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) funded and led the covert Operation Ajax to depose Mosaddegh with the help of the Irani military, led by General Fazlollah Zahedi, who the CIA bribed with $1 million in cash. The Shah was in on the conspiracy and had agreed to dismiss the patriotic Mosaddegh as Prime Minister and replace him with a candidate backed by the British and Americans. As with subsequent American involvements in the country, the coup d’etat failed. The Shah with Soraya fled Tehran first to Baghdad and then Rome. However, a second coup attempt was successful, Mosaddegh was deposed, arrested and tried and the ‘merciful’ Shah commuted his sentence to three years followed by life in exile. Zahedi became the new puppet PM.

Attracted to European women, the two times divorced Shah’s eye next lit on the blonde Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, daughter of the deposed Italian King Umberto II and Marie José of Belgium, known as the “May Queen” due to her brief month long tenure as Queen. But the Princess was a Roman Catholic. First meeting 19 year old Princess Maria during a skiing holiday in Switzerland in 1958, the Shah proposed shortly after. According to Dr. Abbas Milani and Amir Taheri, who wrote Mohammad Reza’s biography Majestic Failure, she accepted the proposal conditionally, depending on the consent of her father and the Pope. The Shah returned to Tehran to pave the way and clear any legal hurdles to the marriage, as the Iranian constitution at that time stated that King must take a Persian Muslim as wife. He hired a team of French genealogists to prove her distant Persian connection and asked the Princess to convert to Islam. First her father, though privately a homosexual but a conservative Roman Catholic where his daughter was concerned, withheld his consent. After the Shah offered to pay him handsomely for his consent, Umberto II left it up to the Pope who was asked to issue a special dispensation for the marriage. Pope John XXIII promptly vetoed the match. Horror of horrors, a marriage between a “Muslim sovereign and a Catholic princess,” was called “a grave danger” in an editorial in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, a Roman Catholic was barred from marrying a divorced person on pains of excommunication and this threat was conveyed to the Princess. The Shah himself went to the Vatican in 1959, and the Pope plainly told him that he would sanction the marriage on the condition that Mohammed Shah convert to Catholicism. The engagement was mutually called off. Princess Maria went on to become a published historian and married a fellow Italian after more than a decade.

Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy

The Shah & Farah Diba on their wedding day Farah in a coat worn over a gown, designed by YSL for Dior

After this debacle, Princess Shahnaz stepped in to arrange a suitable marriage for her father, the Shah, so he could produce a male heir. In the Irani Embassy in Paris, a young Farah Diba was introduced to him in the summer of ‘59.

Farah was born in Tehran, the only child of Captain Sohrab Diba, of Irani-Azerbaijani descent, and his wife, Farideh Ghotbi. Captain Sohrab belonged to an affluent and noble family, his father had been the Persian Ambassador to the Russian Romanov Court. The Captain, a graduate of the prestigious French Military Academy at St. Cyr, served as an officer in the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, but he died suddenly leaving his wife and daughter badly off financially, who were then forced to leave their large Tehran villa and move to the cramped apartment of Farideh’s brother. Farah Diba attended the Italian School in Tehran, then the French Jeanne d’Arc School and later the Lycée Razi. A sporty girl, she was the captain of her school’s basketball team. On a State scholarship, she went to Paris to studying architecture at the École Spéciale d’Architecture. The Shah frequently met State-sponsored students studying at Irani Embassies whenever he was travelling abroad. In February, at the Embassy in Paris, he met the pretty 21 year old Farah. Things moved fast. On her summer trip to Tehran, Farah was formally courted by the 40 year old Shah, as orchestrated by Princess Shahnaz, and within months an engagement was announced.

The marriage took place swiftly at the end of the year. The bride chose Yves Saint Laurent, then the designer for Dior, to make the all important wedding gown. The dress had a modest scoop neck, and matching coat. The ensemble had Persian motifs embellished in sequins, imitation pearls, and silver thread. The train had a fur-lined hem with blue sewn in the hem for good luck. Farah had her pick of the crown jewels. On her head rested the 2 kgs. (more than 4 lbs.) Noor-ol-Ain tiara that has the sixty carat pink Noor-ol-Ain (Eye of Light) diamond as the centrepiece. This had been cut from the Great Table Diamond, mined in Golcanda, India, and has a sister diamond, the 180 carat Darya-e-Noor (River of Light). The Golcanda diamond had been brought back to Persia by Nader Shah in1736 after he plundered Delhi as part of payment for him to return to Tehran. The Shah commissioned Harry Winston to design a tiara around the Noor-ol-Ain. The platinum tiara was set with 324 pink, yellow, and white diamonds, all larger than 14 carats. Today, this tiara and the Iranian crown jewels collection are on display at the National Treasury of Iran in the Central Bank in Tehran.

Within the year, Farah produced the much awaited male heir, Crown Prince Raza Pahlavi born in 1960, and the marriage was deemed a success, followed by Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi of Iran, Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi and Princess Leila Pahlavi of Iran. Initially, the Queen was engrossed in producing her children, but once that was accomplished she became much more actively involved in government affairs, particularly in women’s rights issues and cultural development.

Moments On a skiing holiday

Due to its massive oil production, Iran’s oil revenues soared during this time and the Shah became Middle East’s pre-eminent leader, referring to himself as the “Guardian” of the Persian Gulf. Autocratic, he famously said in 1961 “when Iranians learn to behave like Swedes, I will behave like the King of Sweden.”

A second assassination attempt was made on the Shah in 1965 when a soldier shot his way through the Marble Palace, but was killed before he could reach the royal quarters, after he had killed two civilian guards. According to former KGB officer Vladimir Kuzichkin, the Shah was also allegedly targeted for his pro-West stance by the Soviet Union, using a TV remote control detonated bomb hidden Volkswagen Beetle that failed to detonate.  Apparently, the Soviets made many failed assassination attempts on his life during the height of the Cold War. However, the Shah proved to be like the proverbial cat with nine lives.

26 years after his reign began, on 26th Ocotber 1967 the Shah, in an elaborate coronation ceremony,  took the ancient title of Shahnshah (Emperor), the Queen was crowned as the first Shahbano (the Empress) and Crown Prince Raza was designated as the successor officially. The reason the Shah gave for waiting so long for the coronation was because he said there was “no honour in being the Emperor of a poor country,” which in his opinion Iran had been up till that time. Rich heraldry was incorporated to symbolize the Pahlavi reign and ancient Persian heritage. The imperial crown image was included in every official state document and symbol, from the badges of the armed forces to paper money and coinage. The personal standards for the Shahnshah, Shahbanu and Crown Prince had a field of pale blue, the traditional colour of the Iranian Imperial Family, a central heraldic motif of the individual. The Imperial Iranian national flag was in the top left quadrant of each standard. The appropriate Imperial standard was flown beside the national flag when the individual was present in a building. All this pomp and circumstance was due to the fact that the Shah was very conscious of the fact that his father came up the ranks and was a “self made monarch.”

In the ‘60s, the Shah introduced a series of economic, social and political reforms, which were collectively known as the White Revolution. The goal was to transform Iran into a global power, modernize the country, nationalise certain industries, grant women suffrage, push for universal education and increase the national income. To win mass popularity and simultaneously curtail the power of ancient elite feudal families he expropriated large estates and gave them to more than four million small farmers. He also gave factory workers shares in the mills in which they worked. However, the wealthy land owners and middle income merchant class of the bazaars felt defrauded. Due to rampant corruption, much wealth found its way into the pockets of the extended royal family, their psychophants and government officials, not the poor.  The White Revolution was said to be “shoddily planned and haphazardly carried out,” its main aim to centralize power. The Shia clergy also resented Iran’s pro-Western stance and friendly relations with Israel.

A U.S. Embassy dispatch stated, “The Shah’s picture is everywhere. The beginning of all film showings in public theaters presents the Shah in various regal poses accompanied by the strains of the National Anthem….The monarch also actively extends his influence to all phases of social affairs…there is hardly any activity or vocation which the Shah or members of his family or his closest friends do not have a direct or at least a symbolic involvement.”

But the Shah still paid lip service to a two-party democratic process and said, “If I were a dictator rather than a constitutional monarch, then I might be tempted to sponsor a single dominant party such as Hitler organized.”

The Shah realized that to modernize his country, education was key. Starting from the ‘60s new elementary schools and literacy courses were set up in remote villages by the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, which became known as the “Army of Knowledge.” By 1966 the school attendance of urban seven to fourteen year olds was estimated at 75 per cent and this further rose in the ‘70s. A government program provided free of charge meals to school children. Islamic theologians were formally established as clerics after passing special exams. A quarter of the scientists working in Iran’s nuclear program were women that had been sent abroad to study along with their male counterparts. The Armed Forces were also called on to build infrastructure projects throughout the country. Several steel, power and automobile plants, telecommunications and petrochemical facilities, as well as dams were established to expand the country’s industrial base. The Aryamehr University of Technology was founded to fuel the country’s technological prowess.

The Pahlavi clan in their Greenwich, Connecticut home in happier times

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi with his wife & 3 daughters

Unfortunately, Iran’s labour market could not keep pace with the new graduates swelling the ranks of the labour force. In 1966, high school graduates had “a higher rate of unemployment than the uneducated.” The number of educated but unemployed and frustrated youth kept growing, providing manpower for the coming Revolution. To be fair, national rose dramatically in this period, but this is in part due to the soaring oil price in the ‘70s.

In ’71, the celebration of the anniversary of 2,500 years of continuous monarchy since the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great took place to further consolidate the monarchy’s power. Controversially, the Irani calendar was changed from the hegira to the beginning of the Persian Empire, measured from Cyrus the Great’s coronation. The New York Times reported that $100 million was spent on the celebrations. A tent city covering 160 acres was erected next to the ancient ruins of Persepolis (ceremonial capital of ancient Persia), including three huge royal tents and fifty nine smaller ones arranged in a star-shaped design. French chefs from Maxim’s of Paris prepared breast of peacock entrees for royalty and dignitaries who flew in from the world over, which the guests ate off Limoges porcelain, washing it down with champagne in Baccarat crystal glasses. Interior design firm Maison Jansen, which had been contracted by U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to redecorate the White House, redecorated the buildings that received the dignitaries.

Princess Leila Pahlavi of Iran was a Valentino model Prince Ali Reza & Queen Farah Pahlavi at Leila’s funeral Farah Pahlavi is still sophisticated, elegant & well maintained

Next to this ostentatious and flamboyant display, the poverty in nearby villages stood out in stark contrast. University students went on strike in protest. The Shah kept the exorbitant cost of this extravagant celebration under wraps, which he justified by claiming it would bring in new investments to Iran, establish its importance and give the country more regional clout.

The Empress had also kept herself busy by focussing on culture and the arts. Though historically a culturally rich country, Iran of the ‘60s was empty of much of its heritage. Many of its artistic treasures lay in foreign museums and private collections. The Empress decided it was high time they were brought back. She secured permission and funds to buy back a wide selection of Iranian artifacts and contracted brother antique dealers Houshang and Mehdi Mahboubian, who helped her locate and attain these treasures from ‘72-78. Following the model of Britain’s National Trust, several national museums were founded to house these repatriated acquisitions, including the Negarestan Cultural Center, the Reza Abbasi Museum, the Khorramabad Museum housing the Lorestan bronzes, the National Carpet Gallery and the Abgineh Museum for Ceramics and Glassware. The Empress had a staff of 40 to assist her in the patronage of 24 educational, health and cultural organizations in all. She also carried out humanitarian work, travelling to far flung poor areas of Iran where she gained popularity in the early ’70s.

One legacy of the Empress, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art proved a conundrum for the anti-West Islamic Republic government that replaced the Shah’s regime. The Empress, using State funds, had shrewdly amassed a priceless Western Art collection during the depressed Art market of the ‘70s. Irani sculptor and Cultural Adviser to the Empress, Parviz Tanavoli said that the collection had been bought for “tens, not hundreds, of millions of dollars.” Approximately, 150 masterpieces of artists including works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, George Grosz, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Roy Lichtenstein were bought and displayed at the Museum. It became one of the most significant collections of Modern Art in the world, excluding Europe and the U.S. Today, the value of this collection is estimated at US$2.8 billion. After the ’79 Revolution, the collection lay for nearly two decades in the Museum’s storage vaults. After much public speculation about the fate of the priceless masterpieces, the collection was briefly displayed in an exhibition in Tehran in ’05.

The family now lives in Washington D.C.

 Under the Empress’ patronage, the  Shiraz Arts Festival for the performing arts was held every summer from 1967 until 1977, featuring live performances by both Iranian and Western artists performing  music, dance, drama and poetry. The festival program also showed films held symposia and debates in Shiraz, Persepolis and many other locations. The avant garde festival became increasing controversial and unpopular amongst conservative, orthodox Muslim Iranis.

By 1975, the Shah abandoned all pretense of even a two-party system of government. Only the Rastakhiz (Resurrection) State-sponsored political party was recognized, while the Communist Tudeh party was banned.  Political dissidents were jailed by the thousands. The Shah said, “We must straighten out Iranians’ ranks. To do so, we divide them into two categories: those who believe in Monarchy, the Constitution and the Six Bahman Revolution and those who don’t….A person who does not enter the new political party and does not believe in the three cardinal principles will have only two choices. He is either an individual who belongs to an illegal organization… in other words a traitor. Such an individual belongs to an Iranian prison, or if he desires he can leave the country tomorrow, without even paying exit fees; he can go anywhere he likes, because he is not Iranian, he has no nation, and his activities are illegal and punishable according to the law.”

The Shah’s words, “he has no nation” held an ominous tone and those words ironically applied to him in just a couple of years. Was it Karma at play?!

As resentment seethed at home, the Shah’s regime also lost the favour of the American President Jimmy Carter’s administration due to the former’s role in jacking up the oil price through his leading role in the Organization of the Oil Producing Countries (OPEC). To keep the national income high, the Shah was instrumental in fixing the high price of OPEC oil in the ‘70s that daily poured millions of dollars into the government’s coffers. The American public blamed their own government for failure to take charge of the situation, which turned to Saudi Arabia, its new ally. The American government and media started publicly criticizing Iran’s human rights records. Sensing that the Shah was being abandoned just as his father was before him, street demonstrations increased in size and frequency and the political situation snowballed out the government’s control.

In ’77, the first militant anti-Shah demonstration numbered only a few hundred after the death of Shia cleric and political opponent Ayotollah Ruhoallah Khomeini’s son Mostafa. By next year, well organized national strikes paralyzed the country. Then, on 8th September 1978, a day that is remembered as “Black Friday,” though Martial Law had been imposed, thousands had gathered in Tehran’s Jaleh Square for a religious demonstration. The soldiers opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators. This marked “the point of no return” for the regime. To calm the situation, in early October, the Shah allowed exiled political dissidents to return, but it was too little too late. In December, 6 to 9 million strong demonstrators, more than 10 per cent of the citizens, were marching on the streets. Public statues of the Pahlavis were being defaced and “every sign of the Pahlavi dynasty” was destroyed by the angry demonstrators. In February, pro-Khomeini revolutionary guerrilla and rebel soldiers had taken over the street fighting. The military stepped to the side and, on the evening of 11th February 1977, the Shah’s reign was over. The revolutionaries had won. The Iranian monarchy was formally abolished, and Iran was declared an Islamic Republic led by Khomeini, who took over the reins of power.

The Revolutionary government in Iran ordered the arrest (and later execution) of the Shah and the Shahbanu. The Shah and his family had already fled into exile to Egypt on 16th January 1979, as Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and First Lady Jehan Al Sadat were personal friends. However, Iran started pressing for extradition. Over the next 14 months, to keep trouble at bay, one by one countries around the world shut their doors on the royal family. After Egypt, the Pahlavis stayed briefly in Morocco as guests of King Hassan II. In the article Little pain expected in exile for Shah published in The Spokesman Review, it was estimated that the Shah had a personal fortune of $1 billion. Despite this wealth, the family had nowhere to go.

The Pahlavis headed to the Caribbean, where they were granted temporary refuge in the Bahamas on Paradise Island, which the Empress recalled as the “darkest days in her life.” The Shah tried to buy the island for $425 million, but his offer was rejected. Next stop was South America. Mexico issued them a short visa and they moved into a rented villa in Cuernavaca near Mexico City. The stress took a toll and the Shah’s long-term illness of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, rapidly got worse. They got permission to seek medical treatment in the U.S. Iranis became incensed with the U.S. government for harbouring the Shah and they attacked the American Embassy in Tehran. The bungled attempt by the U.S. to rescue the  Americans Embassy staff and citizens that were held hostage for 444 days became known as the Iran hostage crisis. Again, the Shah and his family became a liability to the host nation and were asked to leave. This time, they headed to Contadora Island, Panama.

Learning that, succumbing to Irani pressure, the Panamanian Government wanted to arrest the Shah and extradite him to Iran, Farah pleaded with Jehan Al Sadat to let them return to Egypt. There three months later on 27th July 1980, the Shah mercifully died. In just over a year he went from being a powerful monarch to a beaten and tired, old, sick man with nowhere to call home. He was buried at Al-Rifa’i Mosque, Cairo.

With that chapter closed President Sadat gave the widow the use of Koubbeh Palace in Cairo, but he too was assassinated in October 1981. President Ronald Reagan stepped in to rescue the family and informed them that they were welcome to the U.S. where they finally settled in the upscale town of Greenwich, Connecticut. You would think that the disgraced royals family’s trouble were finally at an end, but this was not to be.

It turned out that the younger two children had been so traumatized by the upheaval in their lives that they grew up to suffer acute depression and both committed suicide, one after another. Princess Leila was a very pretty girl, full of promise; she was a graduate of Brown University and worked as a model for Valentino. But she also had a dark, tortured side, suffering from anorexia nervosa as well as a drug addiction. She flitted aimlessly between Paris and Greenwhich,  anorexia wasting away her good looks. In 2001, she was found dead in a London hotel room from an overdose of tranquilizers and cocaine. She is buried in the Cimetière de Passy, Paris. Members of the French royal family and the late French President François Mitterrand’s nephew, Fredric attended her funeral along with her family.

Ali Reza was extremely close to his sister and her death had a profound effect on him. He had gotten his Bachelors from Princeton and Masters from Columbia, as well as was studying for his Phd at Harvard and had been called “one of the world’s most eligible princes.” With everything to live for, in January 2011, handsome and dapper Ali shot himself to death in his Boston apartment at the age of 44.

Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, and author of a biography of the Shah, said the Pahlavis have a record of depression, “Sadly, the Shah did have a propensity for depression. In nearly every major profile of him prepared by the CIA, or British and American embassies, there is some allusion to this brooding, melancholy tendency. One report calls him ‘Hamlet-like.’ The other side of this tendency was the Shah’s love of speed, fast cars, and flying. The sad young man (Ali Reza) who killed himself apparently shared both qualities.”

The Pahlavi family in a more politic message on Reza Pahlavi’s website, wrote that Ali was “deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland and struggled for years to overcome his sorrow.”

Ali’s final wishes were to be cremated and his ashes scattered on the Caspian Sea. Posthumously, seven months after his death, his daughter Iryana Leila was born to his girlfriend. Farah recognized her as a full member of their family and a Princess of Iran.

Second born Princess Yasmin Farahnaz Pahlavi, armed with a Masters from Columbia tried to join UNICEF, but her mother said in a 2004 interview to the Los Angeles Times that she was rejected  because of her name. She lives in New York City. Half sister Princess Shahnaz is twice divorced, has three children and has lived in Switzerland ever since she left Iran.

The success story is the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, a political science graduate and trained Air Force pilot, who is the founder and leader of the National Council of Iran, a government in exile of Iran. Happily married to a children’s rights advocate Yasmine, the couple have three daughters the Princesses Noor, Iman and Farah. The Prince is extremely popular with Iranian expatriates who left Iran at the time of the Revolution and even some Irani citizens living within the country.

Irani born lawyer, Afshin Ellian said, “In Iran, there are two names known to virtually all, even in the most remote villages. The first name is Khamenei (the current Supreme Leader of Iran) and the second one is Reza Pahlavi.”

In 2011, Radio Fardah named Reza Pahlavi Iran’s Person Of The Year in a 2011 online poll that was filled by expat and resident Iranis. In 2014, Reza Pahlavi founded his own television and radio network Ofogh Iran. He campaigns for human rights, democracy and Irani solidarity. He is a moderate, secular Muslim who has performed Hajj and calls for a separation of religion and state in Iran and for free and fair elections. The choice of government whether a constitutional monarchy or a republic he says should be left up to the Irani people to decide.

Inspired by the Arab Spring, the Irani youth in February 2011 took to the streets to demand a return to democracy. On that occasion, Reza Pahlavi said in an interview to the Daily Telegraph, “Fundamental and necessary change is long overdue for our region and we have a whole generation of young Egyptians and Iranians not willing to take no for an answer. Democratisation is now an imperative that cannot be denied. It is only a matter of time before the whole region can transform itself.”

The Pahlavis enduring legacy to Iran has been the universal education that Mohammad Raza Shah started in the formerly backward country. 91 per cent of Irani adults are literate, according to 2015 estimates. The Shah’s downfall proved to be his despotic nature and totalitarian rule that suffocated the Irani people and ultimately led to the Shia clergy led Revolution.

By Mahlia Lone

This is the story of Tahira and Mazhar Ali Khan, fellow idealists, humanists, activists and Communists who shunned a life of wealth to work for the betterment of the working class and for women’s rights

We are of course a product of our environment and our families. In order to understand the mindset of the rebellious heroine of our story Tahira, we must first delve into her antecedents.

Khan Bahadur Capt. (retd) Sardar Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, KBE (Knight of the British Empire) was the younger son of Nawab Muhammad Hyat Khan of Wah (then a village), who had been awarded the title and lands for his unswerving service and loyalty to the British and the East India Company. Muhammad Hyat hid and tended to the mortally wounded British army office Brigadier-General John Nicholson, whose personal native orderly officer he served as, from further Sikh attacks during the War of Independence (1857). Nicholson on his deathbed recommended to Brigadier-General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence KCB (Knight Commander of the Bath) the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab at the time to reward and assist Muhammad Hyat in his career, which then took off.

The Hyat family belonged to the Khattar tribe of Attock, North Punjab. A friend of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Hyat helped him set up the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh that later became the Aligarh Muslim University. Accordingly, Sikander was educated at school in Aligarh, then at Aligarh Muslim University and briefly studied in England as well, till he was recalled home in 1915 due to World War I. During the war, he served as one of the first Indian officers to receive the King’s Commission with the Punjab Regiment. For his valour during that war as well as the Third Afghan War in 1919, he was awarded a knighthood.

In 1920, Sir Sikandar turned his financial and managerial talents to business and soon became a director of several successful companies, including the Wah Tea Estate, Amritsar-Kasur Railway Company, People’s Bank of Northern India, Sialkot-Narowal Railway, ACC Wah Portland Cement Company, Wah Stone and Lime Company, Punjab Sugar Corporation Ltd, Lahore Electricity Supply Co. etc. In this way, he added to his father’s agricultural estate with cash from lucrative businesses helped by his British contacts. In addition, Sir Sikander became an honorary magistrate, Chairman of the Attock District Board and briefly acting Deputy-Governor of the newly established Reserve Bank of India in 1935.

All this time, Sir Sikander, not one to sit on his laurels, was also simultaneously consolidating his position as a Punjabi Unionist (pro-British) politician. This was an all-Punjab political party representing the interests of the landlords of Punjab, whether Muslims, Sikhs or Hindus. Secular minded Sikandar Hyat Khan would say, “I am a Punjabi first then a Muslim.”

Leading his party the Unionist Muslim League to victory in the 1937 elections, held under the Government of India Act 1935, Sir Sikander became the Premier of Punjab in coalition with the Sikh Akali Dal and the Indian National Congress and carried out many reforms that benefitted the Punjabi zamindar (feudal landlord).

In October 1937, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Sir Sikander signed the Jinnah-Sikandar pact at Lucknow, merging the Muslims of his Unionist party with the All India Muslim League to pursue a united front safeguarding Muslim rights and interests. Sir Sikander was also one of the chief supporters and architects of the Lahore Resolution, March 1940, which at that time called for an autonomous or semi-independent Muslim majority region within the larger Indian confederation and only later led to the demand for an independent Pakistan. Being a part of the British establishment, not surprisingly Sir Sikander opposed the Quit India Movement of 1942. Believing that by politically co-operating with the British was the best way to gain independence of India and maintain the unity of Punjab, he supported the British during World War II. But maintaining the balance of power between the different religious communities in Punjab proved to be an onerous task and life draining for him.

This is the affluent and politically powerful family that Tahira was born into in 1924. A younger sister to Sardar Shaukat Hyat Khan and Begum Mahmooda Salim Khan, she was educated at Queen Mary College in Lahore.

Shehar Bano Khan writes in an article on Tahira, “As a schoolgirl at Queen Mary’s in Lahore, Tahira Hyat Khan was the only one in her class to stand up to make an unusual request to the principal, Ms. Cox. She asked her if Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the Indian National Congress, could be invited to the school. She was instantly rebuked for forgetting that Queen Mary’s was a purdah school, where men were not allowed. When the young girl stood up for the second time to say how unfair it was that an important leader could not come to the school, the principal had to discipline her by expelling her for an entire term.

‘I had met Nehru at my father’s house and had written to him several times asking why I needed to sit for exams. He always replied saying that exams were necessary for education,’ she said amusedly.

“A little older and displaying the same fervour for politics, the daughter of Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, leader of the Unionist Party and Prime Minister of the Punjab in 1937, decided to pay a visit to M. A. Jinnah at Mamdot Villa. By that time, Tahira had developed a keen interest in the Communist Party of India. One of the reasons was her fascination for a young man who often visited her father’s house, and was a member of the Communist Party.

‘Mazhar was a good friend of my elder sister (and a second cousin). He would come and discuss politics, but I must confess he never noticed me. He was a great debater and more of a hero for me,’ her face softened as she remembered,” according to Khan’s article. “But it was quite difficult not to notice Tahira Hayat Khan for too long.”

“Bicycling her way to Mamdot Villa, the 14-year-old Tahira told the chowkidar to inform Mr Jinnah that Tahira had come. ‘He knew my father and I’d already met him when he came to our house. He was very nice to me and told me that he knew the stance of the Communist Party. I showed him a pamphlet I was carrying in which the Communist Party had declared its support for an independent country.’”

“I had given away my entire trousseau, including the family jewels, to the Communist Party. We were penniless but content. We lived off just Rs 300 a month for an entire year, and often ate spinach and daal. I had no regrets, no complaints and no second thoughts about leaving the luxury of my home. My life with Mazhar was meaningful and complete. Our home may have been empty of material things, but life was full in every way that mattered,” Tahira told Jugnu Mohsin

“In 1941 Muhammad Ali Jinnah went to see her father Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, Prime Minister of the then undivided Punjab, at his office on the Upper Mall in Lahore,” Omar Waraich writes in an article for The Independent. “‘I know all about you,’ Jinnah said reproachfully when introduced to her. ‘You prefer Jawaharlal to me.’ Tahira secretly maintained a correspondence with Nehru. He would write back, discussing the freedom struggle against the British Raj and offering reading suggestions. Tahira’s letters are preserved in the Nehru Museum in Delhi but Nehru’s letters were destroyed after reading. Tahira was fearful that her father, a noted opponent of the Congress, might discover them.”

This was the idealistic, willful girl who had a crush on her older cousin Mazhar Ali Khan, son of Nawab Muzaffar Khan belonging to the senior branch of the family. On paper, it was an ideal match, but in reality Mazhar lacked a profession and means to support a wife. On top of that, as a committed Communist, he publicly spoke out against Sir Sikander. At a public rally Mazhar accused Sikandar of “getting up on his hind legs to plead with the British.” Tahira’s brother, who was present, quickly reported it back to his family and they were livid at the public diatribe.

Jugnu Mohsin, who personally knew Tahira, quotes her in her obituary in The Friday Times, “‘Mazhar was born with the Revolution in 1917. His father, Nawab Muzaffar Khan, was my father’s cousin. Our family lived in Wah, the elders thought the tribe came to India from Ghazni with Sultan Mahmud. They also believed that (the Mughal emperor) Jehangir stopped by the springs on their land en route to Kashmir and exclaimed, ‘Wah!’ We were brought up in Lahore, we were a large brood, ten children off three mothers. Abaji (Sir Sikander) was very keen that we be constructively employed in after-school hours. He encouraged an interest in the arts and culture. I went to Queen Mary’s College with my sisters and had a passion for sport. We spent the weekends at our family home in Lahore where the other cousins also gathered.

‘Mazhar was 8 years older than me. I must have been 14 or 15 when I first noticed him. He was tall and quiet. He was already a well-known debater and student leader. I remember I tried several antics to attract his attention. He ignored me. I think he began to notice me a year or so later. We married when I was a little over 17 and he 25. Abaji would’ve been happier had I married Mumtaz Daultana. It was an unspoken understanding between his father Chacha Ahmedyar and Abaji. Don’t forget, Mazhar was unemployed. But I made my preference known to Abaji and he agreed. We went to live in Wah after we married.’”

Sikandar finally gave his conditional consent that Mazhar could marry his daughter if he joined the Allied Forces in the Second World War. As luck would have it, the Soviet Union was invaded shortly after and the Communist Party of India asked all its members to join the war effort. This way neither father-in law nor son-in-law needed to back down from his stance. The couple was duly married before Lieutenant Mazhar Ali was sent to Italy to fight.

“‘The first thing I did after getting married was to go to my mother and tell her that I was going to the cinema. Marriage meant independence and not asking parents for permission,’ Tahira laughed” Shehar Bano writes, “After three days of marital bliss, she was hit by an immense tragedy. In 1942, en route to Delhi, she received news of her father’s death. ‘I can’t explain what a shock it was. I felt a part of me had died with my father,’ said the activist.”

Sir Sikandar’s final days as Punjab’s Premier were mired in controversy. He was desperately trying to keep together an increasingly fractious province during an incendiary, volatile time. Literally exhausted, his heart gave out on him in December 1942. To commemorate the restoration of Lahore’s Badshahi Masjid, he is buried within footsteps of it. He had been the Premier of Punjab for five years till his death. While a supporter of Independence, he wanted it granted with the support of the British, as they had  rewarded him for his loyalty. His daughter and new son-in-law, on the other hand, remained staunchly anti-establishment, shunning an easy life of affluence to achieve their idealistic utopia through Communism.

Tahira told Jugnu Mohsin, “Mazhar was a Communist sympathizer although he never joined the party. In Wah, he worked with the peasants and workers at Khaur. Of course the family was distinctly uncomfortable with this line of activity but they didn’t object openly. Those were happy days. We lived on virtually nothing. I remember the time Ghaffar Khan was externed from the Frontier. He came to live with us in Wah for two months. Shortly after that, Mazhar left for the Middle East on military service. I was very pregnant by then. We didn’t see each other for two years. I started working for the Women’s Defence League. Our son Tariq was born (in 1942) while Mazhar was away. By the time he returned, I had joined the Communist Party. I had given away my entire trousseau, including the family jewels, to the Party. We were penniless but content. We were living off just Rs. 300 a month for an entire year, and often ate spinach and daal. I must tell you here that I had no regrets, no complaints and no second thoughts about leaving the luxury of my home. My life with Mazhar was meaningful and complete. Our home may have been empty of material things, but my life was full in every way that mattered.

“One day Mian Iftikharuddin came to Wah to see Mazhar. He said he wanted to launch a daily newspaper, The Pakistan Times. He and Mazhar discussed it for days and eventually agreed to put an organization together. It was called Progressive Papers Ltd (PPL). This was the year before the Partition. Mazhar became editor of PT and then went to the news desk when Faiz (Ahmed Faiz) took over the editorship. We moved to Lahore; we had another child, a daughter, Tausif. I worked with women and trade unionists. I used to cycle all over Lahore. Our children were raised by Mazhar’s wetnurse, Jan Amma. I don’t think I could have managed without her. The children called their father Majo and me Maa.”

After the Partition, Tahira worked for displaced and working women. “Unlike the activism of nowadays, ours was very strong and touched the base of the social structure,” she said.

In 1950, supported by the Communist Party and led by Tahira, Fahmida Butt and Naseem Shamim Ashraf Malik, the Democratic Women’s Association, the country’s first women’s rights organization, was formed. It was Tahira who for the first time in Pakistan observed International Women’s Day publicly, openly demanding that women be given equal status and their rights be established.  “Our members were women workers. There was Hajra Masood, Khadija Omar, Amatul Rehman, Alys Faiz and so many countless others whose names I can’t remember now. It was not an elitist organization. We were not getting funds from international donor agencies like the NGOs of today,” Tahira said. “Our work was in the mohallas; there was a perpetual fight against the establishment for people’s rights.” Remembering when railway workers were ejected from their mud huts to give residential space to officers in 1950, she said. “For one whole week, we formed a circle by holding each other’s hands in front of the huts to stop the police from entering them. Eventually, we got the land back for the workers.”

Tahira and Mazhar’s home became a salon for writers, poets, activists and foreign visiting socialist leaders and was also the birthplace of the Progressive Writers’ Association. Tahira said, “Our apartment on Nicholson Road overflowed with life. The Progressives were constantly in and out of our home — Sajjad Zaheer, Sibte Hassan, Mirza Ibrahim, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was friends with Mazhar and visited him in Lahore to warn him that the military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan was poised to snatch control of the newspaper he edited, The Pakistan Times.

“In 1959, General Ayub Khan nationalized PPL and Mazhar resigned immediately. We were lucky to have had our own house but the going got tougher and tougher, so we rented out our house and moved to an apartment on Nicholson Road. Ayub sent messages through General Sheikh who was his interior minister and Mazhar’s brother-in-law for him to return to PT. But Mazhar declined, saying he couldn’t collaborate with a martial law regime. By then I was expecting our third child, Mahir.

“Mazhar remained unemployed for years together. He kept his sanity by observing a strict regime of exercise. We swam regularly in the summer and played tennis in the winter. He also read voraciously. It wasn’t possible to write anywhere in those days. It was much later that Mazhar began to write for The Bengali Weekly Forum. His great pride and joy was Tariq, our elder son, who at 12 had led a demonstration of schoolboys to protest the murder of Patrice Lumumba (Congolese independence leader and first PM). He was also a keen debater, another thing he had in common with his father,” she said.

“During Ayub’s regime, we (DWA) invited women from Vietnam to visit Pakistan. Led by Mirza Ibrahim, the trade union leader, a huge number of women came to greet them. When we made a call, people would come out on the streets,” Tahira said. But soon after in the ‘60s, Ayub Khan banned the DWA because it opposed his rule.

Family friend and rights activist, Neelam Hussain writes in a tribute, “My earliest memories are of Tausif and Tariq’s birthday parties at the Nicholson Road flat, where poetry recitation was part of the evening’s entertainment, and we — Nina, Kauchi, Chhammi, Shelly, Cheemi, Mizu and others quite literally had to ‘sing for our supper’ even as the seeds of future friendships were sown. Great ‘walkers’ – long before walking became trendy and branded attire a mandatory given – Tahira Chachi in khadar suit and ‘fleet’ shoes and Mazhar Chacha in baggy blue shorts and tee shirt were familiar figures of the canal and Jail Road landscape. They would often stop by at our house during these walks and we had come home once to find them quite comfortable on a charpai near the gate. Judging them on sartorial merit, the cook, a new man, had not let them into the house.”

While studying at the Punjab University, Tariq Ali organized demonstrations against General Ayub’s military dictatorship. A relative who worked in the ISI (Interservices Intelligence) warned Mazhar and Tahira that Tariq was in danger, so they decided to get him out of Pakistan. Tariq went to Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. A clever, fiery young man sharing his parents’ convictions and oratory skills, he was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1965. Tariq’s stint at the Union included a famous meeting with Malcolm X in December 1964 during which the latter revealed that he was under threat of assassination. Quickly becoming famous and popular as a student leader, in 1967, Tariq Ali was one of 64 high profile personalities, including The Beatles, who signed a petition calling for the legalisation of marijuana. Tariq debated against the Vietnam War with such figures as President Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and American author Michael Stewart. He became friends with influential political figures such as Stokely Carmichael, Trinidadian-American revolutionary who was a part of the Civil Rights Movement, and later, the global Pan-African movement and pop culture icons John Lennon, wife Yoko Ono and English actress Vanessa Redgrave.

“The 60s closed on an optimistic note. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto won a landslide victory. Sometime in the early 70s, newspaper Dawn’s management asked Mazhar to fill in for their editor Altaf Gauhar, who had been imprisoned by Bhutto. When he came back to Lahore, he launched a weekly called Viewpoint. We sold our house, retaining the patch with the annexe, to get Viewpoint going. It was a labour of love for Mazhar. The children were growing up; Tariq had been to Oxford and won his own recognition. I was busy with the Democratic Women’s Association. Viewpoint was a bottomless pit though; we ended up selling almost everything we had to keep it going. I did protest that we couldn’t carry on like that but I just couldn’t say no to Mazhar in the end. It was his life,” Tahira recalled in her interview with Jugnu Mohsin.

Neelam Hussain writes, “Tahira consistently upheld the workers’ cause to take a stand against her own class including personal friends and she was among the handful of people who had come out on Lahore’s Mall in 1971 to protest army action in East Pakistan and been spat upon for traitors by passersby. And there was WAF – women from her daughter’s generation – whom she had disagreed with, criticised, and stood with in common cause against military rule, Islamisation and unjust laws.”

Though Z.A. Bhutto had been a friend, he apparently was threatened by Tariq. When he became Prime Minister in 1972 he blocked him from landing in Lahore from the UK. Tahira wrote Bhutto an angry and bitter letter, accusing him of betraying the people’s cause, and he quickly lifted the travel ban.

Usman Khan, a family friend, said, “My grandmother and Tahira were friends since Queen Mary College. The relationship between Tahira and Mazhar was strained many times. Tariq was approached by Bhutto to join the PPP’s Youth Wing, which he refused to do. Bhutto never forgave and never forgot. Enormous pressure was put on the family, and due to that, Tariq decided to live in the UK for good. Something died inside Tahira on that day and she never recovered from Tariq’s departure.”

Then, during Z. A. Bhutto’s term as PM, he reinstated the DWA and it picked up where it had left off. Tahira was the DWA General Secretary and traveled to international conferences. On one occasion, she met the Turkish dissident poet, Nazim Hikmet, who kissed her hand and charmingly said she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen..

The General Zia era, starting with a coup in 1977, imposed restrictions on all political life, and the DWA was no exception. In reaction to Zia’s retrogressive laws against females, the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) was formed in 1981 as a new resistance movement. “Till the Zia era we managed to put our force to work, bringing change,” said Tahira. For her opposition to his oppressive military dictatorship, Tahira was jailed. “The pressures were enormous. Mazhar was arrested and imprisoned in 1978 and then again in 1981, following the hijacking of the PIA plane. He developed a heart problem and had to have bypass surgery the following year.”

Sharing the same birthday, 5th January, Tahira sent Bhutto a symbolic and conciliatory gift, a box of Cuban cigars, when he was in jail in Lahore awaiting his trial, following the General Zia’s 1977 military coup. It was a reminder of their common socialist convictions, the times they had shared and a gesture that meant she had forgiven him. Bhutto must surely have appreciated the kindness of an old friend.

Tahira said, “We kept Viewpoint going for as long as we could. Eventually, it became such a strain that we had to close it down in 1992. Mazhar went back to writing a weekly column for Dawn. On the afternoon of January 28, 1993, he complained of a feeling of ‘heaviness’. I took him to hospital. He asked me to call his editor at Dawn and tell him that he wouldn’t be able to send in his column on time. He died the same night. I wouldn’t say he was broken by the closure of Viewpoint. No, he’d come to terms with it. He had watched the Cold War thawing with great interest. Although he’d been a member of the Pakistan-Soviet Friendship Society for years, along with Faiz, he was not uncritical of what passed for Communism in the USSR. He was enormously heartened by Gorbachev’s appearance. When the Soviet Union broke up, he said it was the dialectic at work. Communism had had an enormously salutary effect on capitalism. The welfare state and ‘caring capitalism’ were the West’s response to the threat of Communism. No, we did not mourn the demise of the Soviet Union.”

Tahira remained a champion of workers’ rights and was an activist for 60 years, working for the Railway unions, Kissan Party and Labour Party. She also mentored Benazir Bhutto and even made it clear to her that she did not approve of Asif Zardari, warning her that he would be her ruin. Tahira was extremely proud of her son Tariq, a novelist, filmmaker, journalist and political activist who continues to live in London. While her younger children, daughter Tausif and son Mahir, sort of lived in Tariq’s shadow, their own quieter qualities of loyalty, consistency and stoical perseverance in their chosen professions made them no less successful and exceptional. To her dying day in March 2015, at the ripe old age of 91, Tahira was cared for by her daughter Tausif.

The couple’s partnership was exemplary, the tapestry of their lives rich and fulfilling. In Tahira’s own words, “Activism was not a profession for us. It was our life.”

By Mahlia Lone

A royal love affair, a beautiful Maharani, glittering palaces, lost wills, and legal wrangling over a quarter of a billion pound estate

Jaipur, the magical pink city with the vast fairytale palaces had a Maharaja, who only had eyes for his Maharani. So strong was their love that he allowed his glamorous, intelligent and independent Anglicized wife break with tradition and venture out of the zenana and behave like a thoroughly modern woman, so she would be happy and fulfilled. The Maharaja was Sawai Man Singh II and his Maharani was Gayatri Devi, one of the world’s Ten Most Beautiful Women as listed by none other than Vogue magazine, after Cecil Beaton photographed her in Jaipur in 1943.

Gayatri came from a line of strong women. In her book, Maharanis: The Extraordinary tale of Four Indian Queens and their journey from Purdah to Parliament, Lucy Moore follows the stories of the three generations of game-changing Maharanis (Gayatri, her mother and grandmother). She writes, “These Maharanis and their husbands were cosmopolitan in their tastes and Anglophile in culture. They had an aura of glamour and even celebrity clung to all three women, and their extravagance and adventurism became legendary. There were tales of Rolls Royces won and lost at the gambling tables of Monte Carlo, of millions of pounds spent to maintain dozens of residences and hundreds of servants, of promiscuity and reckless, gilded bohemianism. This was a time when modernity, independence and internationalism were swiftly replacing tradition, colonialism and provincialism. And thus these three Maharanis lived confused, sometimes deeply unhappy lives.”

The story starts with Gayatri’s maternal grandmother Chimnabai of Tinjore, the Maharani of Baroda, whose husband Maratha King Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III transformed Baroda into the most advanced princely state in India and had a fabulous jewel collection. As wilful and capable as the Maharaja himself, Chimnabai  refused to live a quiet and confined life, entering the world of men alongside her husband and sharing in is progressive rule during their 53 year marriage. Gayatri’s mother the Maratha King’s only daughter, the rebellious Maharaj Kumari Indira Raje of Baroda created quite a ruckus in the Maratha ruling families when the time of her marriage drew near.

In 1909, forty year old and extremely wealthy Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of Gwalior was already married, but his Maharani was unable to bear a child. To produce an heir to the gaddi (throne), he needed to take another wife  when he met the beautiful and well educated eighteen year old Maharaj Kumari Indira during the London season. Upon returning to India, he began negotiations with her family and after the astrologers were consulted and horoscopes were compared, the date of the wedding was finalized. Indira was informed of her engagement but she was unhappy. It wasn’t just the age difference; the Maharaja was known to be very conservative and would keep her restricted in the palace of Gwalior in strict purdah. She would rarely be allowed to see even her brothers.

In 1911, Indira Devi accompanied her parents to the Delhi Durbar held to commemorate the accession of King Emperor George V and Queen Empress Mary to the British throne. All the Princes of India gathered to pay allegiance to the British Crown and this was the first time a sitting monarch visited the Subcontinent. The regal festivities lasted for several weeks with polo matches, garden parties, balls and even a ladies durbar. Indira Devi caught up with the princesses of Cooch Behar (the sisters of Maharaja Shri Sir Raj Rajendra Bhup Bahadur Narayan), her friends from the finishing school in Eastbourne that they had attended together. Soon she met and fell in love with the Maharaj Kumar Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, the Crown Prince’s younger brother.

Upon returning home where preparations for her wedding were in full swing, without telling her parents she wrote to her fiancé that she couldn’t marry him. The wedding preparations in Baroda were in full swing at the time, so it must have been quite a courageous act. The Maharaja of Gwalior immediately telegrammed her father: “WHAT DOES THE PRINCESS MEAN BY HER LETTER?” Her parents were livid, but her brothers stood by her side. Her fiancé acquiesced and agreed to break off the engagement. It wasn’t because Cooch Behar was a small state and Jitenra was merely a younger brother that Indira’s father disapproved of the match, but because the Cooch Behar royal family was considered unorthodox and too westernized, sociable with the Europeans and living an Edwardian lifestyle. Maharaja Nripendra Nayaran Bhup Bahadur and Maharani Suniti Devi were favourites in the court of Queen Empress Victoria, and both of the Maharaj Kumar’s sisters had married European men.

Maharani Gayatri Devi, in her memoirs A Princess Remembers, recalls: “a mental picture of him (her father) standing in front of the fire in the drawing-room at Hans Place. He was wearing his dressing-gown and held a glass of whisky in his hand. He was very tall – nearly all the men in the Cooch Behar family are over six foot – and extremely handsome.” Maharaja Jitendra was a football and polo player, a keen musician, attending concerts and then playing the music back by ear, and very fond of children. Unfortunately, the Maharaja died after only ten years of marriage and his widow returned home to become the state’s Regent.

Cooch Behar, located in West Bengal, was much smaller than Baroda. The houses there were quaintly built of bamboo and perched on stilts to prevent flood damage, as there was no local stone to be used for building. The roofs were covered with scarlet plumes and hibiscus, and the roads were similarly hued and lined with red gravel. Palm trees swung in the breeze. Small white temples dotted the main town with little oblong ponds in the front in which worshippers bathed before entering the temple. Only official buildings like the state treasury and council house were built with brick. The royal palace with its huge central durbar dome and two long wings was located in the outskirts of the town. Built in 1870 by an English architect, who also built the palaces of Kolhapur, Panna, Mysore, and Baroda, the palace was designed for the hot climate with long cool verandahs on all sides furnished with sofas, chairs, and carpets, beyond which stood a large garden with pavilions and small ponds.

The palace was staffed with four to five hundred people including, Gayatri writes, “For the parks and grounds there were twenty gardeners, twenty in the stables, twelve in the garages, almost a hundred in the pilkhanna (elephant stables), a professional tennis coach and his assistant, twelve ball-boys, two people to look after the guns, ten sweepers to keep the drives and pathways immaculate, and finally, the guards.

Indoors there were three cooks, one for English, one for Bengali, and one for Maratha food. Each had his separate kitchen, with his own scullery and his own assistants. There were besides, six women to prepare the vegetables, and two or three bicycle sawars (riders) whose job it was to fetch provisions from the market every day.

The Maharaj Kumaris each had a maid in addition to their governess Miss Oliphant and tutors, while Indrajit (the younger son) had one personal servant and the new Maharaja had four. The Rajmata Indira Devi’s entourage included a secretary (who, in turn, controlled another secretary and typist), ladies-in-waiting, and a number of personal maids.

Along with this large staff there were five to six ADCs (Aide de Comp) who were from good families and could not be considered servants. These ADCs had the responsibilities of running different parts of the household. They escorted the Rajmata Indira Devi whereever she went and also helped entertain guests at the palace. These ADCs also acted as filters between the Rajmata and whoever came to see her. They sifted out the genuine visitors from the curiosity-seekers and those with manufactured complaints or petitions. Finally, about forty people compiled the state band that played before dinner every day and during ceremonials occasions.

Though the Rajmata levied many of the responsibilities to comptrollers, clerks and ADCs the final decisions were always hers and hers alone.”  

For two years, Indira and Jitendra kept up their love affair in secret and finally got married in a London hotel in 1913 according to Brahmo Samaj rites but without her parents’ participation. Maharani Chimnabai did not speak to her daughter for two years until Indira Devi gave birth to her first child. Three weeks later after the marriage, Jitendra’s older brother died. He had been in love with the English actress Edna May, but he was not allowed to marry her and drank himself to death. Next in line, Jitendra succeeded to the throne.

The new Maharaja and Maharani of Cooch Behar had five kids in quick succession. Because Maharaja Jitandera’s health was deteriorating, they were living in London where their fourth child baby Gayatri was born. Though the name Gayatri was chosen after consultation with Hindu astrologers, Indira had been reading a Rider Haggard novel while pregnant and wanted to name the baby Ayesha after the heroine, even though it’s a Muslim name, so she was nicknamed Ayesha.

Gayatri grew up a tomboy. Nina Wolia, who interviewed her for The Times of India, writes, “In her crisp English accent, she talked in a matter-of-fact way about her happy childhood days, ‘When I close my eyes, I recall my happiest days were as a child in Cooch Behar. Those were days of innocence. When I read comics like Tiger Tim and Puck. When I’d go shooting, I would plead with the mahout to let me sit on the neck of the elephant. There I used to lie down, my head between the elephant’s ears. At dusk, I would come home riding on my elephant. When I remember this moment, it takes me back to a time when my life was untouched by change and the loss of people dearest to me. I often dream about my childhood days, we had so much fun with my brothers and sisters.’”

Gayatri had a privileged, well rounded education for the time, attending in turn London’s Glendower Preparatory School, London School of Secretaries, Brillantmont, the most fashionable and  exclusive finishing school for debutantes, the Monkey Club, Knightsbridge, Patha Bhavana of Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan, and in Lausanne, Switzerland, where her family vacationed.

When she was only twelve, she met the man who was to be the love of her life and whom she would affectionately call Jai.

Mor Mukut Singh was the second son of Thakur Sahib Sawai Singh of Isarda (a dusty, walled town), a nobleman belonging to the Kachwaha clan of Rajputs. His family was connected to the ruling house of Jaipur. The Maharaja of Jaipur, Sawai Madho Singh II, had been born the son of a former Thakur of Isarda and had been adopted into the ruling family of Jaipur. Madho Singh’s biological father in turn adopted Sawai Singh, son of a relative. Although the Maharaja of Jaipur, Madho Singh II had 65 illegitimate children, he refrained from having any by his five wives because had been warned by a sadhu (Hindu holy man) against having legitimate heirs. Thus, the highly superstitious Maharaja Madho Singh II adopted Mor Mukut to be his son and heir and was renamed Man Singh. When he was only 11, Man Singh succeeded to the throne in 1922 and became H.H. Saramad-i-Raja-i-Hindustan Raj Rajendra Sri Maharajadhiraja Sir Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur.

Man Singh’s first two marriages were arranged to suitable Rajput brides chosen from the royal family of Jodhpur. His first wife was Maharani Marudhar Kunwar, sister of Sumer Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur, while his second wife was Maharani Kishore Kanwar, niece of his first wife and daughter of the same Sumer Singh.

Man Singh was an avid 10 goal polo player, winning among other trophies the World Cup in 1933. At 21, he came to Woodlands, Calcutta to play during the polo season of ‘31 and that is where he met the 12 year old Gayatri for the first time. Having read a complimentary article on him written by Rosita Forbes, Gayatri was struck by the grown up, exceedingly rich and dashing Maharaja. Gayatri shared with him a love for equestrian sports, polo and riding. A year after meeting the Maharajah, she also shot her first panther.

Maharaja Man Singh conducted a six year secret courtshipfor games of tennis and cycle racing, meeting Gayatri, while she was attending the Monkey Club finishing school in London. In her memoirs, she talks about how gossip about her and the married Jai got around. People warned her mother that life as a third Maharani would be tough. Gayatri said reminiscing, “Looking back, I see that those times were much more ahead than an ordinary approved courtship would have been. There was the challenge of outwitting our elders, of arranging secret meetings….And every now and again, there was a marvellous, unheard of liberty of going for a drive in the country with Jai, of a stolen dinner at Bray, or of an outing on the river in a boat. It was a lovely and intoxicating time.”

“Style comes naturally to me. I guess you’re just born with it. My mother has been my role model and icon. When I was young, I watched her dress. Ma was very fussy about her clothes. Did you know she was the first person to start wearing saris made of chiffon? But her greatest passion was for shoes. She had hundreds of pairs and still went on ordering them from Ferragamo in Florence. She always knew the best place to buy anything and she shopped all over the world. I guess, I learnt about style from her. She taught me all about style. Life was more glamorous in the olden days, a lot has changed now,” Gayatri said in an interview.

One day, Jai invited Gayatri to a park. He asked her if she would marry him and also that he had already spoken to his mother about doing so. He had told her that he played polo, rode horses and flew planes, so could die any moment and asked if she still wanted to marry him despite this. She agreed instantly. and

On his second visit to Calcutta on her return from London, Man Singh invited Gayatri for dinner to Firpo’s, the city’s most fashionable restaurant. She recalled that the glow of the attention she received that evening was to remain one of the enduring memories of her life. They subsequently announced their engagement in 1939. But her mother Indira Devi was not pleased for her daughter to become a third wife.

“’The Maharaja likes girls,’ her brother warned her just before the wedding, ‘and just because he is marrying you, one must not expect him to give up all his girls.’”

“’The Maharani-to-be had an answer: Because the maharajah was marrying her and not the other way around, ‘there would be no need for him to have other girls.’”

Their marriage took place on the 9th of May in 1940 after intense diplomatic maneuvering. Because his first two wives belonged to the royal family of Jodhpur, few royal households attended. Confident Gayatri Devi, however, was not perturbed, “I am in the Guinness Book of Records twice, first for having had the most expensive wedding in history and second after the royal privileges were removed and democracy took over, I won by the largest majority ever recorded in a democratic election.”

Arriving as a newlywed bride by train to Jaipur, Gayatri said, “The nearer we drew to Jaipur, the more terrified and unsure I became. I tried desperately not to show it, but Jai I think understood how I felt. As we entered the station, the servants pulled down the blinds around our carriage and very gently Jai told me to cover my face.”

“The third Maharani of Jaipur accepted her role as the Maharaja’s favorite but junior wife with good grace,” the London Daily Telegraph noted. “She adjusted to the formality and restrictions of royal life, but at the same time used her authority to bring the palace women forward into the 20th century.”

Together the Maharaja and Maharani set about on a program of modernization, creating infrastructure and founding numerous public institutions that would later result in Jaipur being selected as the capital of Rajasthan. At the time of India’s Independence in 1947, the Maharaja acceded Jaipur to the Dominion of India. In 1949, Jaipur was merged with 18 other princely city states to form the new state of Rajasthan with it as the capital city. The Maharaja had surrendered his sovereignty and accepting the appointment of Rajpramukh of that state until even that office was abolished when the Indian states were further re-organised in 1956. Although Maharaja Man Singh was appointed State Governor, it soon became apparent that all power lay with the ruling Congress Party. Although the 560 Indian Princes had relinquished their ruling powers, they remained entitled to their titles, limited privy purses and some privileges until the adoption of the 26th amendment to the Constitution of India on 28th December 1971. Accordingly, Man Singh II remained Maharaja of Jaipur until his death; he was the last one.

Gayatri contributed by promoting education in Jaipur, and established the prestigious Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ Public School in 1943 with 40 students and one English teacher, amongst other schools. She also revived the dying art of blue pottery.  In the early 1960s, when the heritage walls of Jaipur city were being torn down, she wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru. He immediately responded in a letter to her, “I have told them to stop the sacrilege.”

Princess Diya Kumari of Jaipur, only child of Bhawani Singh and who herself married the Palace accountant, said in tribute, “Maharani Gayatri Devi will be an eternal legend. She was a great influence to the women of Jaipur. She was the first woman of substance and style of her generation. The world bowed to her beauty. Indeed, she was a people’s Princess.”

Gayatri also went on shikars (hunts) with her husband. Years later, she told Time magazine that she killed 26 tigers before she retired her gun, because “I feel sorry for the animals.”

Gayatri also shared with Jai a love for cars and flying. The first Mercedes-Benz W126, a 500 SEL was imported to India for her expressly. The couple also owned several Rolls Royces and an aircraft. During the 1950s, Man Singh owned the 100 acre Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, West Sussex, which was sold to L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology in 1959, and where Tom Cruise now lives.

Her beloved Jaipur was close to her heart till the end. Even at the age of 89, the Rajmata sat in a 2008 dharna to protest against encroachments. The desecration of Jaipur hurt her terribly. She lamented that in London, like in many historic European cities, no one can build a house that does not conform to the overall architectural layout and strict guidelines. “Who cares for Jaipur anymore?” she asked. “I try but it is a fruitless battle.”

In 1949, she gave birth to her only child, Jagat Singh of Jaipur, later Raja of Isarda when his father granted him his uncle’s fief as a subsidiary title. His eldest half-brother from Maharaja Sawai Man Singh’s first wife, Bhawani Singh was of course the Crown Prince.

Land reform, such as the Jaipur Tenancy Act, was also first introduced in his state under Man Singh’s wise rule. In 1956, the Jagidari (feudal) form of political administration was abolished during the government of the Congress party in India. Several of the royal households became destitute overnight but the former Jaipur royal family, among India’s richest, remained wealthy. In 1958, Man Singh hit upon an excellent scheme, turning Rambagh Palace into a luxury hotel, as was being done by other far-thinking Rajas. In 1965, the Indian government appointed Sawai Man Singh as the Indian Ambassador to Spain and, utilising his European social contacts, he set about attaining new military technology and arms-deal for the Indian Army.

Before and after independence, Man Singh and Gayatri Devi summered in London, partied in Europe and entertained famous visitors, including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at a tiger hunt and the American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (with whom Ms. Devi was often compared).  Life magazine called Gayatri one of the most beautiful women in the world. Her mellifluous throaty English accent The Washington Post once noted, “makes her sound like an Indian Tallulah Bankhead (film star).”

With Man Singh’s role in state affairs and the royal family’s prestige on the decline, in 1960, Gayatri Devi joined the conservative Swatantra party founded by C. Rajagopalachari a few years earlier in opposition to the socialism of Jawaharlal Nehru’s ruling Congress Party. In the ’62 elections, Gayatri Devi ran for Parliament, even thought her campaigning meant she could no longer spend time with Jai, driving out at 7 in the morning in her monogrammed white Jaguar and exercise their 18 polo ponies with him. However, she won the constituency in the Lok Sabha in the world’s largest landslide, winning 192,909 votes out of 246,516 cast, as confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. President John F Kennedy of the U.S. called her, “the woman with the most staggering majority that anyone has ever got in an election.”

In 1965, during a meeting with Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Gayatri Devi was again asked to join Congress. This was the time when, despite the fact that her husband was being made ambassador to Spain, she struck to her principles and decided not to join the party. She got re-elected in 1967 and 1971, on the Swatantra ticket, running against the dominant Indian National Congress party.

Then tragedy struck; Man Singh died aged 58, in 1970, while umpiring a polo match in Cirencester, England, due to a riding accident. Then, next year the privy purses were abolished in 1971, terminating all royal privileges and titles. Indira Gandhi imposed a 21 month long state of emergency imposed in response to escalating riots around the country, during which time the PM suspended all laws and ordered mass arrests. Popular leader Gayatri Devi was also arrested alongside 12 MPs and her step son Bhawani Singh on a trumped up charge of violating tax laws, but she was never tried. It was often said the socialist PM was jealous of the royal politician, and once referred to her  in Parliament as a “bitch and a glass doll”.

During the five months the Maharani spent in prison, she continued to wear chiffon saris, jewellery and perfume and is said to have borne herself with grace. “It wasn’t too bad,” she once cheerfully told an interviewer. “In Tihar, I had my own bedroom with a veranda and my own bathroom. We were well looked after, except we were not free.” She spent five months in Tihar Jail where she developed gastric problems that were to remain with her for the rest of her days. After that, she retired from politics and published her autobiography written with Santha Rama Rau in 1976, which became a French film Memoirs of a Hindu Princess, directed by Francois Levie.

Rajmata Gayatri Devi’s two decades of widowhood were not spent in seclusion, as widows of Rajput rulers were expected to do, but to the indignation of the traditionalists, she continued to live life to the fullest. She travelled extensively, summered in a flat in Cadogan Square, Knightsbridge and spent the winter in her Jaipur dower house Lilypool that her husband had built after their first home, Rambagh Palace, had been transformed into a hotel. A list of VIPs, including Mick Jagger and Sir Michael Caine, were sent over from the hotel daily to Lilypool where she would entertain them over for a glass of champagne in the evening, or held garden parties for them. Funnily enough, those who displeased her were billed for the champagne. When her autobiography came out in a paperback edition in England in the ‘80s, she asked her publishers if she might have a chauffeur-driven car for a morning’s shopping. The chauffeur later reported back that the shopping morning had constituted of a drive out to Surrey for the purchase of a large house.

In her memoirs, the Rajmata talks about her son’s Jagat’s marriage in 1978 to Priya, the daughter of Prince Piya and Princess Vibhavati of Thailand: “We had a reception in London and the Queen of England, the Lord Mountbatton and many friends attended it. A year later, Jagat and Priya had a daughter named Lalitya and two years later they had a son called Devraj. My time was spent not only in India and England but also in Thailand where I went often to visit Priya’s family. Bangkok is a fascinating city. And I love my grandchildren.”

Priya divorced the playboy Jagat in 1987 on grounds of adultery, and their two kids grew up in Bangkok. Jagat died in 1998 and the two royal families became embroiled in a feud over his estate worth approximately Indian Rs. 25 billion or £250 million, which includes fabulous palaces, jewels, paintings and the Knightsbridge flat, and which was finally settled in September 2015.

The case goes something like this. After Jagat’s death the Rajmata produced a letter from him, allegedly a forgery, stating that his children should not inherit any part of his estate after his death. She also argued that her grandchildren could not own property in India because they held Thai and British passports. Their dispute was apparently settled and the Rajmata and her grandchildren struck a deal to split the estate equally between the three of them. Her share was expected to pass to them upon her death and in the meanwhile her step son Prithviraj (step brother of Jagat Singh) would manage the income from the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel until they were no longer minors and were old enough to take over. Originally built for the kingdom’s Prime Minister, this mid-18th century palace that appears to float on a lake was bequeathed by Man Singh to Jagat Singh and is now one of the world’s most luxurious spa hotels, leased out to the Taj group of hotels since 1972. To give you an idea of its value, one night in the hotel’s one bedroom Presidential costs an exorbitant $12,282.

In 2009, the 90 year old Rajmata was being treated for her chronic gastric disorder at the King Edward’s Hospital in London, when suddenly she asked to be returned home to Jaipur, ostensibly to die at home. Immediately, she was was flown there in an air ambulance. She died due to lung failure in a local Jaipur hospital.

In an exclusive interview just before her death, the Rajmata said, “I’ve had a very happy life. I have no regrets. I’m not a nostalgic person. I live in the present. I just try to do what I can, when I see unhappiness around me. Why grumble about things that don’t go your way. Make the most of life. Don’t make me sound arrogant or extraordinary.” (But, asked the interviewer, she’s been a woman of immense strength, role model to millions of Indian woman? )”I’m flattered that you say so. I don’t agree though. But I’d like to tell women of India that they must lead a full life. They must give their everything to life and be faithful to their families.”

But her family was feuding over her estate, which the Rajmata had left to her stepson Prithviraj, a move challenged in court by her grandchildren. They sued him accusing him of watering down their shareholding in the hotel from 99 per cent to just 7 per cent. The late Jagat Singh held 99 per cent of the company’s shares and the property was gifted to him by his father late Man Singh. Later, Jagat Singh’s estate had been diluted to seven per cent while Maharaj Prithviraj and his family now owned 93 per cent stake in the company.

Devraj said in an interview that the ill-feeling of his step-uncle Prithviraj, who had once acted as his grandmother’s executor, even extended to two vintage vehicles once owned by his father and grandmother that were currently sitting gathering dust in a shed under covers, a baby-blue Bentley from the ’20s, and a 1949 Jaguar sports car. He said ruefully, “My uncle has the keys to these.”

After a nine year legal battle, the courts granted Maharaj Devraj Singh his share of his father and grandmother’s estate upon the discovery of the Rajmata’s will naming her grandchildren as her legal heirs. On Sept 23rd 2015, the Supreme Court of India upheld the Delhi High Court’s verdict in favour Devraj and his sister, allowing them to claim their shares in the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel, Rambagh Palace Hotel, Sawai Madhopur Lodge and SMS Investment Corporation, the first three businesses being luxurious heritage hotels, while SMS Investment organises weddings and seminars.

Devraj and Lalitya celebrated their hard won victory in style with Cristal champagne and caviar.

The World’s Most Beautiful Woman & The Sexiest Man Alive

Ashwariya Rai was born 1st November 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka (south-western state of India) into a middle class orthodox Hindu Tulu-speaking Bunt (warrior class) family. Krishnaraj, her father, was a biologist in the Army, while her mother, Brinda is a stay at home mom. Her elder brother, Aditya Rai works currently as an engineer in the Merchant Navy. The family moved to Mumbai early on where Rai attended a Hindu affiliated private high school. Not only was she a diligent student earning a 90 per cent aggregate average in her Higher Senior Cambridge exams, but she also trained extensively in classical dance and music. Wanting to become an architect, she enrolled at a local Architecture Academy, but dropped out when she started receiving modeling offers.

In 1991, Ash won a Ford modeling agency contest and was featured in American Vogue. In 1993, she became popular in a Pepsi commercial alongside Aamir Khan and Mahima Chaudhry. Though she had but a single line: “Hi, I’m Sanjana,” her looks and screen presence made her an overnight sensation. The same year she entered the Miss India pageant, in which she came second after Sushmita Sen. In a historic double beauty pageant win for the country in the same year, Sushmita went to win the Miss Universe crown, while Ashwariya was crowned Miss World 1994.

Both Ashwariya and Salman have been immortalised with wax staues at Madam tussauds

Though Ashwariya made her film debut in 1997 with a Tamil film, it was with the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed 1999 hit Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam opposite Salman Khan that she first tasted commercial and critical success winning two Best Actress Awards: Filmfare and International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA). The movie’s box office takings were twice its budget, its success fueled by the onscreen chemistry of the lead pair, Ash and Salman Khan.

Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan was born on 27th December 1965 in Mumbai to screenwriter Salim Khan, from an Afghani Pathan family, and Sushila Charak, renamed Salma Khan at marriage, of mixed Maharashtran and Kashmiri ancestry. Salman has two younger brothers, Arbaaz, married to actress/model/VJ Malaika Arora Khan, and Sohail, as well as two sisters, Alvira, married to actor/director Atul Agnihotri and an adopted sister Arpita. His stepmother is Helen, a yesteryear screen siren and dancer. The three brothers studied at the all boys Jesuit run St. Stanislaus High School spread over seven acres in Bandra, Mumbai. Salman then attended the prestigious Elphinstone College but dropped out only after a year to pursue acting.

In 1989, Salman made his debut as a leading man in Sooraj R. Barjatya’s romantic family drama Maine Pyar Kiya, which was the year’s highest grossing film and among the top 10 successful films of India of all times. Not only was it dubbed in Indian regional languages and became a hit in other provinces, but it was also dubbed both in English and Spanish, reduced to 125 minutes and became an international hit in far off places, like the Caribbean and South America, etc. Though the heroine Bhagyashree turned out to be a one hit wonder, Salman consolidated his success with a string of hits in the Nineties. In 1994, his second collaboration with Sooraj Barjatya the romcom Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) opposite screen queen Madhuri Dixit broke all previous box office records, earning $20 million (or $70 million when adjusted for inflation), becoming Bollywood’s top grosser for seven years and is now the fourth highest earning Indian film ever. Then, came the action thriller Karan Arjun (1995) with Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar’s romantic drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) with Shah Rukh and Kajol, in which Salman was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor and David Dhawan’s comedy Biwi No.1 (1999) with Karisma Kapoor and Sushmita.

Philanthropic minded Salman started the charitable trust Being Human in 2007 to raise money for education and healthcare for the underprivileged, while Ash in 2010 pledged to donate her gorgeous green eyes to th Eye Bank Association of India after her death

At this time, Salman had broken up his serious relationship with model/actress Sangeeta Bijlani (who then had an affair with and subsequently married cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin after divorced his wife) and was dating Pakistani-American Bollywood actress Somy Ali (now a fashion designer). He became friendly with Ash who was trying to make it big in Bollywood, while he was an established box office star. Ash would come to visit him in his house and Somy Ali, not thinking anything of it, would direct her to his whereabouts.

On Salman’s insistence, Bhansali signed Ash on for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam after her modest success in Tamil film Jeans. During filming, the news broke that the two had started dating and a heart-broken Somy Ali departed for the U.S.     Quickly Ash became close to Salman’s family, including his sisters Alvira and Arpita, and became a part of every Khan family celebration. However, her father Krishnaraj Rai was not happy. To freely spend ample time with Salman, Ash moved out of the family home on the twelfth floor of the La Mer building where Sachin Tandulkar also resides and into a 17^th floor duplex apartment in Gorakh Hill Tower, Lokhandwala, a high rise also in Bandra worth INR 10 million. Salman also lives in Bandra at the Galaxy Apartments, though he has a sprawling 150-acre estate in Panvel (a small town adjacent to Mumbai) with three bungalows, swimming pool and gym as well.

Trouble between them started when, according to Ash, Salman became possessive about her and would fly into jealous rages. One November night in 2001, Salman went to their love nest (Ash’s apartment) and started banging on the door for what seemed like hours, till 3 A.M. Eyewitnesses said he threatened to jump off the roof if she didn’t let him in. His hands were bleeding from the banging. Finally, she relented. Reportedly, he wanted her to assent to his marriage proposal, but Ash who was ambitious, was not ready for such a commitment at the time. Aishwarya’s father Krishnaraj Rai, hearing of the incident, reported it to the police. Salman confessed that Aishwarya was not returning his expression of love in kind, and that was why he had become violent, but he did not hit her. Though he convinced her to stay in the relationship with him, she started having doubts.

In a February 2002 interview to The Times Of, Salman admitted, “The incident is true, but it was overhyped by the media. I have a relationship with Aishwarya. If you do not fight in a relationship, it means you do not love each other. Why would I squabble with a person who is a stranger to me? Such things happen between us only because we love each other. Now, even the police have barred me from entering that building. Her parents are very nice people. They are orthodox like my family. They have heard about my past affairs and they didn’t like me in the life of their daughter. It is my fault, not theirs. I should have understood it earlier. They never stopped me from meeting with Aishwarya despite the fact that I treated them badly. Aishwarya did not like my behaviour towards them just as I would not appreciate anybody misbehaving with my father. Aishwarya’s father is completely justified in complaining against me. I have no grudge against him.”

Then, film magazine Stardust reported that Somy Ali, his ex, called Salman up and asked for financial help for her father’s operation. Salman flew to the U.S.A to lend her support without telling Ash and she was furious. Again, they fought then reconciled, but the truce did not last for long. Salman accused Ash of cheating on him with none other than Abishek Bachchan, her costar in Kuch Naa Kaho. She counter accused him of flying into a rage on the set and damaging her car parked in the studio parking lot. The final nail in the coffin was when he burst in on the set of Chalte Chalte and started shouting at her to leave the studio with him because she was getting too chummy with her leading man/producer Shah Rukh Khan, who tried to intervene. Salman held him by his collar, but Shah Rukh managed to calm him down.

Aishwarya Rai confirmed in her September 27, 2002, interview to the Times of India: “Salman and I broke up last March, but he isn’t able to come to terms with it….After we broke up, he would call me and talk rubbish. He also suspected me of having affairs with my co-stars. I was linked up with everyone, from Abhishek Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan. There were times when Salman got physical with me, luckily without leaving any marks. And, I would go to work as if nothing had happened. Salman hounded me and caused physical injuries to himself when I refused to take his calls.”

In another interview to The Indian Express, she said, “I stood by him enduring his alcoholic misbehaviour in its worst phases and in turn I was at the receiving end of his abuse (verbal, physical and emotional), infidelity and indignity. That is why like any other self-respecting woman I ended my relationship with him.”

In response, Salman maintained that he had never physically attacked Aishwarya.  In an interview in September 2002 for MiD-Day, he said, “No. I have never beaten her. Anyone can beat me up. Any fighter here on the sets can thrash me. That is why people are not scared of me. I do get emotional. Then I hurt myself. I have banged my head against the wall; I have hurt myself all over. I cannot hurt anyone else. I have only hit Subhash Ghai. Yet, I apologised to him the next day. There are times when you do get out of control. That person hit me with a spoon, almost broke a plate on my face, pissed on my shoes and grabbed me by the neck. I could not control myself. And see what happened. Next day, I had to go and apologise.”

“I love (Aishwarya). I am not hounding her. It’s not a teenage obsession that I feel for her — it’s pure love. She’s such a traditional Hindustani girl at the bottom of her heart. The fact that she respects her parents so much makes me admire her more,” he said.

It is interesting to note that the day after Aishwarya made her break-up public in the Times of India interview, Salman got drunk and rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser onto the pavement and into a bakery in suburban Bandra. A homeless man died and four were seriously injured in the crash and Salman went to jail for drunk driving and culpable suicide. Many of Salman’s friends and colleagues visited him in jail, but Aishwarya stayed away. They did not get back together after this.

Though charges were initially dropped in July 2013, Salman Khan was formally charged in this case to which he pleaded not guilty. Two years later, Salman was found guilty of all charges in the case and was sentenced to five years in prison, but was granted bail the same day. His driver Ashok Singh, who had testified that it was him who was driving the car at the time of accident, was charged with perjury for misguiding the Court with false testimony and was arrested. In a twist, the prime witness Police Constable Ravindra Patil was kidnapped and killed perhaps by the Mumbai underworld bosses that are reputed to have links with the film world. Subsequently, due to lack of evidence, in December 2015 Salman was acquitted of all charges much to the relief of his fans.

Meanwhile, Ashwariya sought consolation with the promising upcoming actor Vivek Oberoi, son of Quetta born veteran Indian actor Suresh Oberoi. Vivek had received a Filmfare Award for his debut movie Company (2002). She didn’t admit the relationship publicly but he would frequently escort her to events. They also starred in the movie Kyun Ho Gaya Na, released in 2004.

According to Vivek, on Ash’s indirect instigation he called a press conference in a hotel room on 31st March 2003 claiming that he had been receiving life threatening calls from Salman due to their budding relationship. There was direct fallout from this, with the film fraternity immediately siding with the powerful Khan. Quickly, Ash distanced herself from Vivek, calling him immature. She dropped him like a hot potato and Vivek must have felt very used and gullible.  During the director/choreographer Farah Khan’s TV talk show, Vivek admitted that the press conference direly affected his career, which took a nosedive after this. He said that Salman’s brother Sohail Khan, who was once his best friend, never forgave him. Disgusted and disillusioned, Vivek Oberoi declared: “Aishwarya Rai is just plastic. You can never trust her as she can change at any hour of time.” Vivek profusely apologised to Salman, both publicly and privately for years to come, but Salman was adamant.

Ash being fiercely ambitious focused on her career, starring in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hugely successful tragedy Devdas (2002) with Shah Rukh and Madhuri,  in the Rituparno Ghosh directed critically acclaimed films Chokher Bali (2003) based on a Rabidranath Tagore novel and Raincoat (2004) based on a O Henry short story, among other films. In 2003, she became the first Indian actress to be a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival where she appeared as a global brand ambassador of L’Oréal, alongside Hollywood stars Andie MacDowell, Eva Longoria and Penélope Cruz. Additionally, she appeared in American and British films productions, including the awful Bride and Prejudice (2004), Mistress of Spices (2005), Provoked (2006), The Last Legion (2007) and Pink Panther 2 (2009). Though the films may have been commercially successful, the foreign critics panned her wooden acting. Indian blockbusters she appeared in this period have been the adventure film Dhoom 2 (2006) during the filming of which Abhishek reportedly fell for her, and the historical romance Jodhaa Akbar (2008) opposite Hritik Roshan.

Though they had both appeared in two films together prior to this, it was during her item song Kajra Re with both Abhishek and Big B himself (Amitabh) in Bunty Aur Babli (2005) that you sense things brewing. Amitabh seemed to be giving Ash his seal of approval (though she is unofficially a couple of years older than Abhishek). By the time Dhoom 2 started filming the following year, Ash and Abhishek were a couple. Their engagement was announced on 14th January 2007 and later confirmed by his father, Amitabh Bachchan on Twitter. The couple married on 20th April 2007, according to traditional Hindu rites of the Bunt community, to which her family belongs. She was also famously first married to a banana tree as she was considered inauspicious for her husband so the bad luck would befall the tree instead of Abhishek. The wedding reception took place at the palatial Bachchan residence Prateeksha in Juhu, Mumbai.

Together their star power shot up. Abhishek Bachchan accompanied Ash to the Cannes Film Festival shortly after their marriage, and later they both appeared as guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009, where Oprah described them as being more famous couple than Brangelina.

Ash due to being over forty had trouble conceiving and it was reported that she sought treatment for stomach TB and/or got IVF treatment, both which she vociferously refuted. When she finally did conceive, she took a sabbatical for five years. She gave birth to a baby girl on 16th November 2011, whom four months later they named Aaradhya Bachchan.

Though she has returned to films, Ashwariya now in her mid 40s is mostly seen appearing in commercials and endorsing products. She has received two Filmfare Awards to date and in 2009 the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest Indian civilian award by the Government of India for her contributions to the Arts. In 2012, she was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a national order of France. On a negative note, recently she along with her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan (who has also previously been implicated in corruptions scandals, including the infamous Bofors case though he was later acquitted in this) were named in the Panama Papers leak for having hidden their millions overseas.

Salman moved on with actress Katrina Kaif. The two were in a serious relationship till it ended in 2010 due to Salman’s inability to commit. In February 2006, he was sentenced to one year in prison for illegally hunting the Chinkara (black buck) an endangered species, but he ended up spending only 3 days in jail. In 2011, Salman revealed he suffers from the incurable trigeminal neuralgia, a facial nerve disorder commonly known as the suicide disease, for which he got surgery in the U.S.

Salman is on top of his game with the lead role in several successful action films, including Dabangg (2010), Bodyguard (2011) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015). He has won 2 Filmfare and 70 other film awards. Nine of the films in which Khan has acted in have accumulated gross earnings of over INR 1 billion (US$15 million). He is the only actor to star in the highest grossing Bollywood films of nine separate years. In fact, in one year he earned $33.5 million more than Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Leonardo di Caprio or Brad Pitt did that year. He is also the Bollywood actor with the highest rated TV show, even more than Amitabh. He has two production companies: SKBH Productions (Salman Khan Being Human Productions that donates all its profits to his charity Being Human to help the underprivileged) launched in 2011 and SKF (Salman Khan Films) launched in 2014 that produced Canadian film Dr. Cabbie, the second highest grossing Canadian film of that year, Hero and Bajrangi Bhaijan.

In a two page signed statement that she gave to the The Times of India in 2003, Ashwariya categorically stated, “For the sake of my well-being, my sanity, my dignity and the dignity and self-respect of my family—enough! I will not work with Mr. Salman Khan again. The Salman chapter was a nightmare in my life and I am thankful to God that it is over.” She has never looked back. However, Salman is still supposed to harbour a small soft corner for her. Though he is friendly with his other ex-girl friends, Salman and Ashwariya studiously stay away from each other to this day.

By Mahlia Lone

Two sporting mega stars on either side of the border defied all odds and got hitched. However, with super hectic careers touring the globe for their match commitments plus spending time with their respective families in their hometowns, making a long distance relationship (LDR) work is not all smooth sailing

Born in Sialkot on 1st February 1982, Shoaib Malik grew up like so many Pakistani boys playing cricket in the streets with a taped up ball. In 1993, he was selected due to his superior batting skill to attend Imran Khan’s coaching clinic in his hometown. There his bowling technique improved as well. His family was not impressed as they wanted him to focus on his education, but he persevered and was selected for the Under 15 World Cup team. Then, in 1999 at only 17 years of age, Shoaib made his One-Day International (ODI) debut playing for the national team against the West Indies, and his Test debut in 2001 playing against Bangladesh. Since then he has taken over 100 ODI wickets, and has a batting average in the mid 30s in both Test and ODI cricket.

Going from strength to strength in his career, following Inzamam-ul-Haq’s resignation as Pakistan captain after the 2007 World Cup, Malik became captain of the team at only 25, Pakistan cricket team’s fourth youngest captain. Pakistan’s coach, Bob Woolmer said Malik was “the sharpest tactical tack among his group … a real presence on the field.” But the captaincy lasted only two years. In a report the new coach Intikhab Alam wrote in a report that Malik was “a loner, aloof and involved in his own little world, which is OK but not when the team required a fully committed captain  We do not see any meaningful communication between players and captain other than his five-minute talk during the team meeting.”  Malik was replaced by Younis Khan as captain on 27th January 2009. On top of that, in March 2010, Malik was banned from playing International cricket for the national team by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as a disciplinary action for infighting. He was one of seven cricketers taken off the team after a dismal tour of Australia. By end May, however, his ban was overturned, his fine was reduced by half to Rs. 1 million and he was again chosen to represent the country at the Asia Cup that year.

In Doubles Tennis, sania is currently ranked world’s No. 1 and earns more than $5 million annually

Sania Mirza was born in Mumbai on 15th November 1986. Her father Imran Mirza worked as a builder, and her mother Naseema worked in a printing business. The Mirzas relocated to Hyderabad shortly after Sania’s birth. She also has a younger sister, Anam and both sisters attended Nasr School in Hyerabad. Sania went on to graduate from St. Mary’s College also in Hyderabad and additionally received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the MGR Educational and Research Institute University in Chennai in 2008.

At the age of six, Sania started playing tennis with her father coaching her. She won 10 Singles and 13 Doubles titles as a junior player. Debuting at the senior circuit at only 15, in April 2001, she turned professional in 2003 and won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships Girls Doubles title, partnering with Alisa Kleybanova. Sania is the highest ranked Indian female tennis player ever, peaking at world No. 27 in Singles, 2007. Due to a wrist injury, she was injury forced her to give up playing Singles tennis. In Doubles, she is currently ranked world’s No. 1 and earns more than $5 million annually. From 2003 until her retirement from Singles in 2013, she was ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association as India’s No. 1 player, both in Singles and Doubles. Sania has won six major titles (three each in Women’s Doubles and in Mixed Doubles), as well winning as the World Tennis Association (WTA) Finals in 2014 partnering with Cara Black, and defending the title with Martina Hingis the following year. Moreover, Sania has also won a total of 14 medals, including 6 Gold, at the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Afro-Asian Games. Of her game, Sania said, “There’s no doubt that my forehand and backhand can match anyone, it’s about the place that they’re put in. I can hit the ball as hard as anyone can, but I’m not that fast on my feet.” Sania, a keen swimmer, improves her stamina and fitness with swimming as well.

With ex fiance and childhood sweetheart Sohrab Mirza at their engagement

Wimbledon Doubles champions 2015, Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza

It was during Pakistan’s disastrous tour of Australia from December 2009 to February 2010 that Malik hit it off with Sania Mirza, the Indian tennis sensation…. Sania said she found “the all rounder, Shoaib Malik very simple and attractive”

In 2009, Sania Mirza became engaged to childhood sweetheart Sohrab Mirza, a millionaire businessman, in a lavish ceremony in Hyderabad. Sania and Shoaib had briefly met in Australia in 2004 when they were both playing there, but they had both played badly and were too busy licking their wounds to pay too much thought to each other. She recalls that they met just for two minutes at a restaurant in Hobart.

Then in January 2010, while Shoaib was in Australia touring with his team, he went the day after the Pakistan match with teammate Waqar Younis to watch Sania play at the Australian Open. Though she crashed out of the competition, she hit it off immediately with Shoaib.

Not only is Sania fond of watching cricket like most South Asians but interestingly she is distantly related to former cricket captains Ghulam Ahmed of India, and Asif Iqbal of Pakistan. She said she found “the all rounder, Shoaib Malik very simple and attractive.” Suffice it to say, Malik must have made quite an impression on her. Finding herself drawn to another man so soon after her engagement, Sania went back to India and promptly broke off her engagement citing incompatibility. According to Sania, Shoaib didn’t propose to her. Instead “it was decided from both sides,” she said.

Cricketing hero Shoaib Malik

Hyederabad nikah ceremony

Lahore valima

The big sensational story that broke when Shoaib arrived in Hyderabad to stay at Sania’s family home for their upcoming nuptials was that Ayesha Siddiqui, also a Hyderabad resident, accused Malik of already being married to her since 2002. 

Ironically, this was when India-Pakistan diplomatic ties were at their coldest due to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. While Pakistanis rejoiced at the wedding and called Sania the nation’s bhabi (sister in law), many Indians were less than amused.

Kamila Shamsie at that time wrote in a hilarious article for the UK newspaper The Guardian: “Bring on the puns about love games, fine legs and bowling a maiden over. Pakistan’s former cricket captain, Shoaib Malik, is to marry India’s top-ranked female tennis player, Sania Mirza. In India, the rightwing Hindu nationalist political party, the BJP, has asked Mirza to ‘reconsider’ her decision to marry a Pakistani, while more centrist parties have remained silent. In Pakistan, the Islamic rightwing political parties – who would usually have a lot to say about women who wear tennis skirts – have remained silent, while more centrist parties have voiced their congratulations. The contrasting attitudes each side of the border actually reveal the same assumption: a wife belongs to her husband’s ‘household,’ so an Indian woman marrying a Pakistani man is unpatriotic, whereas a Pakistani man marrying an Indian woman is carrying home the spoils of victory. Or, as the painfully sexist/ jingoistic joke doing the rounds in Pakistan goes: ‘Finally, we get to see Pakistan screwing India.’”

On 12th April 2010, the couple got married. They had a mehndi, followed by a sangeet for which the couple even rehearsed a dance performance, and the nikah was performed at 1p.m. at the Taj Krishna Hotel in Hyderabad. The hakh mahr (marriage settlement) was kept at Indian Rs. 6.1 million (US$137,500). “Sania wore a red sari that her mother had worn 25 years ago for her own nikah. Shoaib wore a black sherwani made by Shantanu and Nikhil,” announced Sania’s spokesperson, Rucha Nayak. Their valima ceremony was held in Lahore, Pakistan.

Dancing on an Indian TV show

Shoaib has eyes only for Sania

The couple owns a home on the Palm Island in Jumeirah, Dubai

The big sensational story that broke when Shoaib arrived in Hyderabad to stay at Sania’s family home to make preparations for the wedding was that Ayesha Siddiqui, also a Hyderabad resident, accused Malik of already being married to her since 2002 when a nikah was performed over the phone. His side was that they were never married; she was overweight and deceived him by sending him her more attractive relative Maha’s picture, since there’s was mostly a cyber relationship (after meeting once together in Jeddah). Her rebuttal was that why would he consent to marry her without meeting her and that he visited her in a hotel room after the nikah. Sania and Malik held a joint press conference and denied his alleged first wedding, Long story short, Malik got a quickie divorce from Ayesha with community leaders mediating and the latter sank back into obscurity. Malik then issued a press release to do damage control asking everyone to think of him as a younger brother and forgive him.

The cross border wedding between the two huge sporting stars generated a lot of press. Sania Mirza became the most searched woman tennis player and Indian sportsperson in 2010, according to Google Trends.

Nick Hoult interviewed the couple in Dubai for British paper, The Telegraph:

“‘When I was out of the team I used to travel with her (Sania) to tennis events because I had lot of free time and she used to say the same thing, keep working hard and when you get the opportunity take it. She encouraged me to keep playing and to believe that I had plenty of cricket left in me. That is what I did. When you look at her and how well she is doing you get inspired and you want to do, well, as well as her,’ said Shoaib Malik

The couple owns a home on the Palm Island in Jumeirah, Dubai, home to the many celebrities who have apartments here. When their marriage was announced five years ago right wing parties in India urged Mirza to reconsider and Dubai makes a convenient refuge for an Indo-Pak couple and also a useful base for two athletes with schedules that take them around the world.

“I’m not very good at playing tennis depite trying,” said Malik

‘We have three places we call home,’ said Malik, ‘Pakistan, India and Dubai. Obviously Dubai is the main base for us. She plays almost throughout the year so it is tough to get an opportunity to stay together in one place but whenever one of us is free we travel wherever the other is playing. Sadly I did not see her win Wimbledon because I was in the Caribbean playing in their Twenty20 premier league.’

 ‘Before we started dating she used to love cricket. Even today she loves cricket. That is the game she watches. Obviously being Indian cricket is your first passion whether you are male or female. She watches cricket all the time.’

Responding to a question, she made it clear she would continue supporting her homeland in future Indo-Pak encounters on the cricket field, but was quick to add that she would want her hubby to hit a century.

Sania at younger sister Anam’s wedding last year to which Shoaib was reportedly not invited

While Sania did much of the talking, Shoaib reluctantly responded to some questions.

Replying to a question, Shoaib clarified that Sania would play only for India and she would have the good wishes of Pakistan.”

 “One of the heavy prices that the celebrities have to pay is that their personal lives are constantly subjected to public scrutiny,” Sania Mirza said on one occasion calling her husband, Shoaib Malik, her “James Bond.”

Shoaib has said on record that he is not very good at tennis despite trying. (Perhaps his ego can’t take a beating by his wife.)

Malik retired from test cricket in November last year but will continue with limited overs cricket. He is also captain of the Sialkot Stallions and has led his team to a record eight domestic T20 titles, most recently on 18th May 2015. He is also a part of the Karachi Kings team in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), but stepped down as captain as it was affecting his performance.

“We are just good friends,” said Shoaib about Humaima

Or are they?

Mirza has been recognized for her achievements. She was named one of the 50 Heroes of Asia by Time magazine in October 2005. In March 2010, The Economic Times (of India) named her in the list of 33 Women who made India proud. She was appointed the UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia to mark the International Day to End Violence against Women in 2013, becoming the first South Asian woman appointed as Goodwill Ambassador in the organization’s history. Additionally, she has been awarded the Arjuna Award (2004), WTA (World Tennis Association) Newcomer of the Year (2005), Padma Shri (2006), and Padma Bhushan (2016). In 2014, the Chief Minister of Telangana  K. Chandrashekar Rao appointed Sania Mirza as the brand ambassador of her home state. Sania has  established a tennis academy in Hyderabad, which has been visited by former world No. 1s Cara Black and Martina Navratilova.

However, the Shoaib-Sania marriage is not doing so well reportedly due to conflicting schedules. Even when they are not travelling for work, they prefer to spend time with their own families in their own hometowns and are spending less and less time with each other.

Reports in the Pakistani media have stated that Malik has been seen spending time with actress Humaima Malik. He has responded by saying she is just a good friend. Humaima herself posted their photos on social media, which could have been a publicity ploy on her part considering her recently launched Bollywood career.

Upon her triumph at Wimbledon last year, Sania was tweeted congratulations by PM Narendra Modi and husband Malik, who wrote “So pleased with win. The high amount of drive, discipline, focus, & large visions that sportsmen r made of.” She thanked the PM and retweeted his message, but ignored her husband.  Then, at her sister Anam’s wedding, Malik was conspicuously absent.

During Eid last year, Shoaib and Sania celebrated separately with their own respective families. Upon this occasion she tweeted, “This journey wld not hav bn possible without my family, my team, my partner and u guys. I thank Allah for blessing me with so much in my life.” Again  ignoring Malik.

Denying reports that his marriage is on the rocks, Malik said in an interview, “I and Sania have a strong relationship and we knew before we got married that it wouldn’t be easy, but sometimes it gets frustrating reading baseless storieses about our marriage.”

Let’s see what life has in store for this couple. We wish them luck whatever they decide!

By Mahlia Lone

Yesteryear filmstar Neelo and socialist filmmaker Riaz Shahid are Pakistani superstar Shaan’s parents. Both were two strong-minded creative individuals who have bequeathed to the nation a memorable filmography. Their real life love story, packed with politics, romance, song and dance, villains, melodrama and tragedy could easily inspire a movie. Let’s delve more into the life of these two stars, who left their mark on Pakistan’s film history

Cynthia Alexander Fernandes (later Neelo) was born in Sargodha pre-Partition officially in 1945, and unofficially in 1941. She grew up in a Punjabi Christian household and not much is known of her early life. She came on the radar when she was recruited to play a reporter for the Hollywood classic Bhowani Junction in 1954, starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger. The film is based on actual historic events during the Independence struggle when Congress Party workers laid down on railway tracks to protest British rule over India. However, the film’s producers were denied permission by the Indian government to film in the country as a Hindu revolutionary is portrayed as the villain in the film. The Pakistani government readily agreed and the MGM film crew came to Lahore for the outdoor shooting staying at the Faletti’s Hotel, which still has a suite in Ava Gardner’s name where she stayed at the time. Filming began at the Lahore Railway Station where the sign Bhowani Junction was put up. Somehow Parveen Alexander (as Neelo was known in those days) managed to get the part of playing a budding reporter in the film, paving the way for her future in Pakistani films. She subsequently appeared in a grand total of 134 Pakistani films to date in Urdu as well as Punjabi.

In 1956, the teenager under the screen name Neelo appeared in the Pakistani film Sabira. Her breakout role came the following year playing a flower seller in the mega hit romantic comedy Saat Laakh, lip syncing and dancing to the perennial song sung by Zubaida Khanum:

“Aaye mausam rangeelay suhane

(The weather is colourful and pleasant

Jia nahi mane,

(I’m feeling restless)

Tu chutti lay kar aaja saajan.”

(Get a holiday and come visit me my love.)

The song became immensely popular and is still played to this day. Neelo, the round faced girl with two braids and large, sparkly eyes, became an overnight sensation. Soon film offers started pouring in and there was no looking back to her former life of anonymity. Many of her films celebrated silver, gold and diamond jubilees at the box office and she became a bankable star, known as the Princess of Romance and Fatal Attraction.

In his article Socialist Cinema for a local newspaper, Zulqurnain Shahid describes the memorable working partnership between Riaz Shahid and left wing symbolist poet Habib Jalib. Their first collaboration took place on the film Khamosh Raho, released in 1964. They were both taraqqi pasand (progressive) literary figures who supported anti-imperialist fighters from Muslim backgrounds. The film’s plot was ostensibly about a brothel owner’s system of bonded prostitution, but it was multilayered. On a deeper level, it portrayed the similarities between arranged marriages and prostitution. Remarkably, it also predicted the 1965 war between India and Pakistan. Only political insiders knew at the time that President Ayub Khan was going ahead with Operation Gibraltar inside Indian-held Kashmir

Born in 1930, Sheikh Riaz, nicknamed Shahid, was educated at Islamia College, Lahore, and then started working as a journalist at the Urdu newspaper Chataan. After this, he joined Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s weekly Lail-o-Nihar. Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a world famous Pakistani agnostic, humanist philosopher, poet and communist leader, wrote lyrical poetry supporting worker unions and denouncing the tyranny of military dictators. For this reason, he was celebrated in the Soviet Union. Shahid developed his socialist leanings working under the poet. As a natural progression of his literary career, Shahid wrote a novel Hazar Dastaan, before turning to script writing. In 1958, Riaz Shahid started his film career as a script writer for the film Bharosa. He was the writer, director and producer for the film Susraal in 1962.

In his article Socialist Cinema for a local newspaper, Zulqurnain Shahid describes the memorable working partnership between Riaz Shahid and left wing symbolist poet Habib Jalib. Their first collaboration took place on the film Khamosh Raho, released in 1964. They were both taraqqi pasand (progressive) literary figures who supported anti-imperialist fighters from Muslim backgrounds. The film’s plot was ostensibly about a brothel owner’s system of bonded prostitution, but it was multilayered. On a deeper level, it portrayed the similarities between arranged marriages and prostitution. Remarkably, it also predicted the 1965 war between India and Pakistan. Only political insiders knew at the time that President Ayub Khan was going ahead with Operation Gibraltar inside Indian-held Kashmir. Jalib’s lyrics of:“Main te to preet nibhai sanwarya re” (I have been faithful to my sweetheart) were not just about a woman singing to her soldier fiance, but also Pakistan’s soil rallying the troops to protect the sanctity of her borders, safety within the borders and an ominous warning about the coming invasion.

renowned for her dancing, Neelo…was peremptorily summoned to dance for the Shah of Iran on an official visit to the country in 1965. reportedly, the Incumbent Governor of West Pakistan, nawab of Kalabagh, Amir Mohammad Khan threatened her and demanded she dance for them at the Governor’s House. knowing that Shahid Riaz would not approve, a reluctant and nervous neelo collapsed on the floor while dancing and feigned unconsciousness. Some even claimed that she had tried to commit suicide by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills on the way to the Governor’s House. She was rushed to the hospital where doctors revived her. Thus, Neelo demonstrated her faithfulness and loyalty to Shahid

Additionally, Jalib’s poem, Dastoor (The Constitution) that he read at Liaquat Bagh (Pindi) against Ayub Khan and for which he was jailed, was included in the movie after a slight alteration. The lyrics to the song ended in:

“Tum nahee charagar,

(You are not the remedy)

Koee maney Magar,

(Whether someone believes it or not,)

Main naheen manta.”

(I don’t believe it.)

The song managed to pass the censor board even though it was against martial law. Shahid wrote the characters and dialogue inspired by events being reported in the press. The brothel madam is based on Aqleem Akhter Rani, nicknamed General Rani, a woman who infamously procured women for those in power. According to the plot, the madam of the brothel uses the character played by Mohammad Ali (newly into acting he received much acclaim for this role) to kidnap young village women for feudals and military officers. Eventually, his conscience smites him and he fights from within the brothel for justice. When the film’s main protagonist, a soldier played by Yusuf Khan, arrives to break up the brothel, he tells him, “Tum sarhad kee hifazat karo, andar hum sambhal lein ge.” (You safeguard the border, we’ll protect it from the inside). In this way, Shahid illustrated the link between the civilian government and the military throughout Pakistan’s political history. Thus, the two writers were fearless in their anti-establishment sentiment.

Eldest daughter Zarqa, Neelo & Riaz Shahid

Riaz Shahid married Neelo and gave her his protection. She converted to Islam and was given the name Abida. SHahid’s film Zarqa was released in 1969 the same year that President Ayub Khan handed over the reins of power to General Yahya Khan and it became the defining film of Neelo’s career. based on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the film is a parable. Neelo, in the titular role of Zarqa, is a Muslim Palestinian follower of Yasser Arafat and prisoner of war who has been captured by the Israelis. She is forced by an Israeli general to dance and, upon refusal, is soundly whipped and burnt with lit cigarettes. This scene was influenced by the real life incident that had occurred, which Riaz Shahid bravely incorporated in the film as was jalib’s lyrics….At the end of the song “Aaj qatil ki ye marzi hai” (Today the murderer is demanding this) Zarqa utters Allah with such palpable pathos and pain that the audience also suffers with her. Through symbolism Shahid and Jalib depicted the Palestinian plight and a victimized Neelo’s real life humiliation, sadness and suffering, making this the most popular scene of the movie. Zarqa became such a big hit that it became Pakistan’s first diamond jubilee, meaning it played for more than 50 weeks at the cinemas, and Neelo received her first Nigar Award for Best Actress

In 1966, he wrote and directed the Punjabi movie Mr. Allah Ditta, in which Neelo was cast. During filming their romance began. For his film Zarqa that he produced, directed and wrote, Shahid again cast Neelo. Halfway between filming of the movie, a dramatic incident occurred. Renowned for her dancing, Neelo, who by this time had won two Nigar Awards for Best Supporting Actress in 1959 and 1963, was peremptorily summoned to dance for the Shah of Iran on an official visit to the country in 1965. Reportedly, the incumbent Governor of West Pakistan,  Nawab of Kalabagh, Amir Mohammad Khan threatened her and demanded she dance for them at the Governor’s House. Knowing that Riaz Shahid would not approve, a reluctant and nervous Neelo collapsed on the floor while dancing and feigned unconsciousness. Some even claimed that she had tried to commit suicide, swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills on the way to the Governor’s House. She was rushed to the hospital where doctors revived her. Thus, Neelo demonstrated her faithfulness and loyalty to Shahid.

Habib Jalib immortalized this incident in his poem titled Neelo:

“Too ke nawaqif-i-aadab-i-shahenshahi thee

(You are unaware of the tenets of imperialism!

Raqs zanjeer pehen kar bhee kiya jata hai!”

You can also dance in fetters)

This poem was adapted and used in the film Zarqa. Soon after this incident, Riaz Shahid  married Neelo and gave her his protection. She converted to Islam and was given the name Abida. Zarqa was released in 1969 the same year that President Ayub Khan handed over the reins of power to General Yahya Khan and it became the defining film of Neelo’s career. Shahid’s film, based on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is a parable. Neelo, in the titular role of Zarqa, is a Muslim Palestinian follower of Yasser Arafat and prisoner of war who has been captured by the Israelis. She is forced by an Israeli general, played by Taalish, to dance and upon refusal she is soundly whipped and burnt with lit cigarettes. This scene was influenced by the real life incident, which Riaz Shahid bravely incorporated in the film. The wordings of Jalib’s poem were changed in the song to:

    “Too ke nawaqif-i-aadab-i-ghulami hai abhi

(You are unaware of the tenets of slavery!

     Raqs zanjeer pehen kar bhee kiya jata hai!” (You can also dance in fetters!)

At the end of the song “Aaj qatil ki ye marzi hai” (Today the murderer is demanding this) Zarqa utters Allah with such palpable pathos and pain that the audience also suffers with her. Through symbolism Shahid and Jalib depicted the Palestinian plight and a victimized Neelo’s real life humiliation, sadness and suffering, making this the most popular scene of the movie. Zarqa became such a big hit that it became Pakistan’s first diamond jubilee, meaning it played for more than 50 weeks at the cinemas and Neelo received her first Nigar Award for Best Actress.

Reema & Shaan in his first film Bulandi

Family photo

After this, Neelo retired in favour of domestic life. Shahid and Abida named their eldest child, a baby girl, Zarqa who is now married with children of her own. Then, came Shaan, named Armaghan at birth in 1971, followed by the youngest, Sarosh who has also appeared in two films.

Shahid’s final movie was Yeh Amn, a movie on Kashmir. Jalib penned a few of the songs for this film, including the  hit song Zulm rahey aur amn bhee ho,  sung by Noor Jahan and Mehdi Hasan. Shortly after the film was released, Shahid Riaz died of leukemia in 1972.

Shaan with his deceased father’s photograph

Though devastated, life had to go on for Abida who had to take care of her very young children. In order to support her family, she resumed her career by starring in the hit movie Khatarnaak, another diamond jubilee film, in 1974 for which she was again awarded a Nigar for Best Actress. She also continued to produce films under her husband’s banner with Baheesht (1974). She won two more Nigars for Best Producer and Best Film. Her last Nigar was for Jat Kuryan Tu Darda (1976). In 2013, she appeared in Waar, a Shaan starrer.

Shaan, the most popular Pakistani film star of our times with more than 500 films to his credit, made his film debut in1990 starring in Javed Fazli’s film Bulandi opposite Reema Khan. He has won many awards including one Pride of Performance, four National Film Awards, fifteen Nigar Awards, five Lux Style Awards, and one each Pakistan Media Award and ARY Film Award. He carries on his parents’ legacy.

Images provided by Guddu Film Archive

By Mahlia Lone

The fourth Mughal Emperor Jahangir finally found 15 years of wedded bliss with his twentieth wife, Nur Jahan.  This is the story of how a woman from a Persian immigrant family fallen on hard times used not only her looks, but also her intelligence and shrewd common sense to become the most powerful woman of her time

Nur-ud-din Mohammad Salim, born on August 31st, 1569, was Emperor Akbar’s eldest surviving son and heir, later to become Emperor Jahangir (World Conqueror).

Prince Salim was first married on February 13, 1585 to his cousin Rajkumari Manbhawati Bai, daughter of Bhagwant Das of Amer, the son of Raja Bharmal and the brother of Akbar’s Hindu wife and Salim’s mother Mariam uz-Zamani. The Rajkumari was renamed Shah Begum, and two years into the marriage produced a son Khusrau Mirza.

Though Salim was the heir presumptive from an early age, he was impatient for power and revolted in 1599 against his father Emperor Akbar, who was engaged in a campaign in the Deccan at the time, thus, setting the precedent for Mughal princes rebelling against their Emperor fathers. Though unsuccessful in his rebellion, he was pardoned due to the influence of powerful court ladies, such as his grandmother Maryam Makani. According to one theory, Akbar wanted Khusrau to succeed him due to Salim’s history of willful, impulsive behavior and revolt against him, which pitted the three generations, Akbar, Salim and Khusrau against each other. Due to the growing strife and trouble between her husband and son, a despondent and helpless Shah Begum committed suicide in 1604.

Nurjahan & Jahangir taking a moonlit stroll

Taj Bibi, nee Jodh Bai, Salim’s
(later Jahangir) third wife who he
married in 1586 and the union produced Khurram, later Shah Jehan

According to one theory, Akbar wanted (his Grandson) Khusrau to succeed him due to Salim’s history of willful, impulsive behavior and revolt against him, which pitted the three generations, Akbar, Salim and Khusrau against each other. Due to the growing strife and trouble between her husband and son, a despondent and helpless Shah Begum (salim’s first wife and khusrau’s mother) committed suicide in 1604

Akbar too died suddenly on 3rd October 1605 after a bout of dysentery and on his death bed named Salim as his successor. Salim ascended the throne in 1605 as Emperor Jahangir. During the first year of Jahangir’s reign, his eldest son Khusrau led a failed rebellion against him. However, Khusrau’s forces couldn’t fight the might of the Mughal Empire and he was defeated and brought to Jahangir bound in chains. The father did not show clemency as Akbar had done towards him and had his own eldest son blinded and thrown into prison. The Emperor also had 2000 rebels executed, so it was a bloody start to his 22 year long reign.

Jahangir’s reign proved to be strong and stable and he was successful in consolidating the Mughal Empire. Like Akbar, he too was religiously tolerant, but was beset with a growing addiction to alcohol and opium that later was to leave him in a befuddled state.

Mehr-un-Nissa was of Persian descent

Emperor Akbar & Prince Salim

At the time Mughal India had a thriving, robust and prosperous economy that attracted immigrants looking for a better life. One such was an impecunious Persian aristocrat Mirza Ghias Beg (father of Nur Jahan). Taking his pregnant wife Asmat Begum and his three young children with him, the young family made the arduous journey from Persia to India on mules

Emperor Jahangir is celebrated for his patronage of the arts, architecture and culture, and was a keen horticulturist, botanist, ornithologist, bird watcher and even interested in the sciences. His rule saw many advances in these fields. Some of the impressive achievements due to his patronage include Kashmir’s Shalimar Gardens, the world’s first celestial globe, painter Ustad Mansur’s methodical documentation of animals and plants, and the advancement of portrait painting through the establishment of a royal studio.

Jahangir writes of his own art appreciation skill and his discerning eye in his autobiography Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, or Jahangirnama:

“…my liking for painting and my practice in judging it have arrived at such point when any work is brought before me, either of deceased artists or of those of the present day, without the names being told me, I say on the spur of the moment that is the work of such and such a man. And if there be a picture containing many portraits and each face is the work of a different master, I can discover which face is the work of each of them. If any other person has put in the eye and eyebrow of a face, I can perceive whose work the original face is and who has painted the eye and eyebrow.”

Jahangir with his celestial globe

Emperor Jahangir weighing his son
Khurram in gold, circa 1605

Emperor Jahangir playing holi at his palace

Jahangir married a string of pretty girls from princely Mughal, Rajput and Kashmiri families. One of his earlier favourites was the Rajput Princess Jagat Gosain Begum, who he renamed Taj Bibi Bilqis Makani upon their wedding in 1586. She gave birth to Prince Khurram, the future Emperor Shah Jahan, Jahangir’s successor. However, Jehangir’s twentieth and last (disputed, he may have married five more times according to one historian) wife is considered to be the love of his life, who wielded considerable power over his heart and his realm.

Nur Jahan, nee Mehr-un-Nissa, was born in Kandahar, present-day Afghanistan, into a family of Persian nobility and was the second daughter and fourth child of a well born couple who had fallen on hard times in their homeland. At the time Mughal India had a thriving, robust and prosperous economy that attracted immigrants looking for a better life. One such was an impecunious Persian aristocrat Mirza Ghias Beg. Taking his pregnant wife Asmat Begum and his three young children with him, the young family made the arduous journey from Persia to India on mules. On the way, they were attacked by robbers who stole their money, possessions and all but two mules. In these dire circumstances, while travelling through Kandahar on 31 May 1577, Asmat Begum gave birth to their second daughter, a beautiful baby girl. As luck would have it, fortunately, the merchant noble Malik Masud asked the family to join his caravan. Believing that their lovely new baby was responsible for the sudden reversal of their fortunes, the couple named her Mehr-un-Nissa (Sun among Women).

Nur Jahan was the power behind the throne

Silver One Rupee coin bearing Nur Jahan’s name of Patna Mint

 When they finally reached India without any further hardship, Malik Masud assisted Ghias Beg in finding a position in the service of Emperor Akbar. Showing promise and skill in administration, Ghias Beg was quickly promoted and appointed the royal diwan (treasurer) for the province of Kabul. In time, Akbar awarded him the title of Itimad-ud-Daula (Pillar of the State). Because he and Asmat Begum had descended from an illustrious Persian line, they chose to invest their newly found good fortune in their children’s education. Even the daughters were taught Arabic, Persian, art, literature, music and dance and were groomed into fine ladies.

In 1594, at the age of 17, Mehr-un-Nissa was married by royal consent to Ali Quli Beg Ist’ajlu, also a Persian immigrant, who had been forced to leave his country after the death of Shah Ismail II whom he had served. Ali had joined the Mughal army under Akbar as a companion to Prince Salim. As a reward for his loyalty to the prince, Akbar arranged his marriage to Mehr-un-Nissa, whose family by now was considered a well settled Persian family and was also in the Emperor’s employ. Though their union produced no children, Ali had a daughter Ladli Begum from a previous marriage that his young wife doted on and brought up as her own.

One day, on a royal hunt in Bengal, a ferocious man-eating tiger jumped to attack Akbar riding on the back of the elephant. Quick as lightening, Ali leapt up, tossed the tiger off and then slayed it when it fell to the ground. The hero of the day, he earned the title Sher Afghan (Tiger Tosser) and was made a captain of the Imperial Guard in Bengal by a grateful monarch.

According to popular belief, two years after Akbar died; Jahangir spied the beautiful Mehru-un-Nissa and sought to add her to his harem. She, however, spurned the Emperor’s overtures and was faithful to her husband. Yearning for her, Jahangir had Sher Afghan conveniently killed in 1607 under the cooked up circumstances of his rebelling against the Governor of Bengal. His widow and daughter were then summoned to court by the Emperor and made ladies-in-waiting to his stepmother, Empress Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, Akbar’s first wife and daughter of the Mughal Prince Hindal Mirza.

Jahangir’s durbar

Dutch merchant and travel writer Pieter van den Broecke wrote in his travelogue,  Hindustan Chronicle, “The Begum conceived a great affection for Mehr-un-Nissa; she loved her more than others and always kept her in her company.” The two became extremely close. Meanwhile, Mehr-u,Nissa’s family was not doing so well. Her father, a diwan to an amir-ul-umra (provincial governor), stood accused of embezzlement and her brother of treason. Under these circumstances, according to the official story, in 1611, while accompanying Empress Ruqaiya to the palace meena bazaar (funfair) during the Nowruz (New Year) spring festival, Jahangir met the 34 year old widow, was smitten and immediately proposed. They were married on 25th May. The Emperor gave her the titles of Nur Mahal (Light of the Palace) and Nur Jahan (Light of the World) to match his name Nur-ud-Din Jahangir.

The poet Vidya Dhar Mahajan praised Nur Jahan as having a piercing intelligence, wit, charisma, a volatile temper, but sound common sense. Soon, winning her husband’s trust, she became the most powerful woman in the Mughal Empire then at the peak of its power and glory, no mean feat considering she was barren and didn’t produce any heirs for Jahangir. A fast decision maker, Nur Jahan is considered by historians to have been the real power behind the throne for more than fifteen years sitting alongside Jahangir behind a discreet jharoka (overhanging enclosed balcony) to receive audiences. She wielded more power and was granted more honours and privileges than any other Mughal Empress. For example, she was the only Mughal Empress to have coinage struck in her name; not only was she present when the Emperor held court, but even held court in his place when he was absent or indisposed; she oversaw the administration of several jagir (land parcels) and consulted with ministers; she was given charge of the imperial seal, and her consent was necessary before any document or order gained legal validity; she was consulted by the Emperor before he issued any orders; she was even decreed a Nishan, a privilege reserved for royal males. As his dependence on alcohol and opium grew, so did his reliance on his Empress. Nur Jahan had first her father and then her brother Asaf Khan appointed the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister). To consolidate her family’s position, Nur Jahan arranged for her step daughter Ladli to marry Jahangir’s youngest son, Prince Shahryar and her niece, Asif Khan’s daughter, Arjumand Banu Begum (later known as Mumtaz Mahal) to marry Prince Khurram (Jahangir’s third son and the future Emperor Shah Jahan). The family’s future prosperity was, hence, assured.

The Emperor & Empress of Hindustan

Additionally, Nur Jahan was a great huntress. She often accompanied Jahangir on royal hunts and was renowned for her courage, temerity, marksmanship and boldness. On one occasion, she killed a tiger with her first shot, which even the official royal huntsman Mirza Rustam couldn’t do. On another, she is famously reported to have shot down four tigers with six bullets during a single hunt. Jahangir writes, “As a reward for this good shooting I gave her a pair of bracelets of diamonds worth 100,000 rupees and scattered 1,000 ashrafis (gold coins) over her.”

 A poet on the spot spouted a spontaneous a couplet in her honour, as recorded by Syed Ahmad Khan:  “Though Nur Jahan be in form a woman,

In the ranks of men she’s a tiger-slayer.”

Nur Jahan was a great philanthropist as well, arranging the marriages and dowries of countless orphan girls and aiding those in need. A woman with many talents, she herself designed lovely outfits, veils and ornaments, decorated the palaces and arranged grand feasts and entertainments. She was even a poetess. Persian arts and culture flourished in the land during this time. However, it was her love and the care that she took of the Emperor that won her his heart. He writes, “I did not think anyone was fonder of me than Nur Jahan Begum”.

In 1621, when Jahangir fell seriously ill, she assiduously nursed him back to health. Later, he writes “Nur Jahan Begum, whose sense and experience exceeded that of the physicians, in her kindness and devotion, exerted herself to reduce the quantity of my potations. Although I had before discarded the doctors and their advice, I now had faith in her attention. She gradually reduced the quantity of wine I took, and guarded me against unsuitable food and improper things.”

To consolidate her family’s position, Nur Jahan arranged for her step daughter Ladli to marry Jahangir’s youngest son, Prince Shahryar and her niece, Asif Khan’s daughter, Arjumand Banu Begum (later known as Mumtaz Mahal) to marry Prince Khurram (Jahangir’s third son and the future Emperor Shah Jahan). The family’s future prosperity was, hence, assured

Dutch merchant Francisco Pelsaert who worked for the Dutch East India Company at the time, writes in his book Jahangir’s India: the ‘Remonstrantie’ of Francisco Pelsaert, “when the last cup has been drunk, the King goes to bed. As soon as all the men have left, the Queen comes with the female slaves, and they undress him, chafing and fondling him as if he were a little child. This is the time when his wife, who knows so well how to manage him that she obtains whatever she asks for or desires, gets always ‘yes,’ and hardly ever ‘no’ in reply.”

Another time, it was Nur Jahan’s turn to fall ill and Jahangir’s chief hakim (physician) brought her back to health. For this service, Jahangir bestowed on him three villages and his weight in silver such was his devotion to his wife.

Jahangir’s mausloeum at Shahdara Bagh, Lahore

Emperor Jahangir’s tomb

Nur Jahan’s mausoleum at Shahdara Bagh, Lahore

The heir to the throne and Jahangir’s favourite son Prince Khurram obviously resented his stepmother’s undue influence and the fact that it was to her rather than the heir that the Emperor turned to for advice. Moreover, Nur Jahan clearly favoured her son in law Prince Shehryar (Khurram’s half brother) to be next in line. When the Persian forces besieged Kandahar, Nur Jahan ordered Khurram to march to save the city, but he refused to follow her orders fearing that in his absence he would lose his position. As a result, after a 45 day siege the gateway city was lost to the Persians for which he was blamed. Tensions mounted even further, erupting in open rebellion by Khurram in 1622. Jahangir’s army chased Khurram’s rebel troops all over India until he surrendered unconditionally in 1626. The family strife further weakened the Emperor’s already deteriorating health.

Then, in a dramatic turn of events, in 1626, Jahangir was captured by rebel leader Mahabat Khan while the Emperor was on his way to Kashmir to recuperate. Quickly organizing an attack on the enemy to rescue the Emperor; Nur Jahan herself courageously led one of the units on top of a war elephant that was hit. Surrendering to Mahabat Khan, she too was placed in captivity with her husband. While imprisoned, the wily Empress organized a cunning plan and succeeded in their escape.

Jahangir died aged 58 on 28th October 1627 on the way back near Sarai Saadabad, Kashmir. He was buried in a mausoleum in Shahdara Bagh, Lahore.

A brief war of succession followed in which Nur Jahan’s brother Asaf Khan betrayed her in favour of his son in law Khurram, Khurram had his half brothers Shehryar and the blinded Khusrau executed to leave no possible contenders to the throne. His other half brother alcoholic Prince Pervaiz was considered too weak and ineffectual to be much of a threat. Khurram took the imperial throne of Hindustan and was crowned as the Emperor Shah Jahan.

Though Nur Jahan lost her power and influence at court, she was pensioned off by Shah Jahan with a sum of 2 lakhs and a comfortable mansion in which to live with Ladli Begum. She remained faithful to Jahangir’s memory, wearing only simple white clothes and attending no entertainments. Her only extravagance was erecting fine Mughal buildings. She first constructed her father’s mausoleum, now known as Itmad-ud-Daulah’s Tomb in Agra, the first Mughal structure built of white marble. Built on the banks of the River Yamuna, it is said to resemble a silver jewel box placed in the centre of a garden and is said to have inspired Shah Jahan’s Taj Mahal. She also built Nur Mahal in Sarai, Punjab, and Nur Afshan Garden, Agra. She continued to compose Persian poems under the pseudonym Makhfi.

Nur Jahan died on 17th December 1645, aged 68. Buried in a tomb, she herself had constructed near her beloved husband’s in Shahdara Bagh, she had on it inscribed the epitaph:

 “On the grave of this poor stranger,

Let there be neither lamp nor rose.

Let neither butterfly’s wing burn, Nor nightingale sing.”

By Mahlia Lone

The tempestuous 15 year relationship of Z.A. Bhutto and Husna set against the backdrop of his meteoric rise and fall

When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto met Husna Sheikh at Billo and Khalil Omer’s house in Dhaka in 1961, he was, at only 34 years of age, Ayub Khan’s young and fiercely ambitious foreign minister, a Sindhi feudal and an Oxford educated barrister, while she was married to a bourgeouis nationalistic Bengali lawyer Abdul Ahad and mother to two toddler girls. Not the girl next door, Husna was a rivettingly attractive, sari clad, husky voiced, tall, svelte, dusky beauty, with a mixed Pathan-Benagli ancestry.

Husna challenged Bhutto that evening, she recalls, on West Pakistan’s imperialism towards the East and how it would lead to the Bangladeshi movement, thus capturing his attention with her “aggressive confidence” and oozing sex appeal. But Bhutto was a nefarious philanderer. Not happy in her marriage, she reportedly played hard to get with Bhutto at the outset because, knowing his reputation, she didn’t just want to be his latest conquest. Bhutto already had one cousin-wife at his estate in Larkana and a second, the glamorous and elegant Kurdish-Iranian, Nusrat ensconced in his Karachi home at this point.

Bhutto and Husna were not only physically compatible, but had formidable intellects to match and the affair progressed to a stage that in 1965, Husna, leaving her husband behind in Dhaka, confidently moved to Karachi with her daughters, virtually penniless.

“The chemistry was undeniable,” said Husna to Jugnu Mohsin in her 1990 interview for The FridayTimes. “Both Zulfi and I were charged with something beyond each other. It was a vital, exuberant feeling.”

In her autobiographical novel, My Feudal Lord, Tehmina Durrani writes that Mustafa Khar facilitated the still hush-hush affair, picking and dropping Bhutto in Karachi to Husna’s residence. On one occasion he even he witnessed a defiant Husna slamming the door shut in Bhutto’s face. It became a stormy, tumultuous affair between two head strong and independent minded people. Though he was a powerful and charismatic leader revered by millions, it must have been a novel experience to have a woman dependent on his good will stand up to him, unlike his sycophantic followers.

With second wife, Kurdish-Iranian Nusrat

Foreign Minister Z A Bhutto addresses the UN Security Council during the 1965 war

“The chemistry was undeniable,” said Husna to Jugnu Mohsin in her 1990 interview for The Friday Times. “Both Zulfi and I were charged with something beyond each other. It was a vital, exuberant feeling”

Managing an introduction to Sheikha Fatima of Abu Dhabi, Husna got a contract to decorate her Abu Dhabi palace in 1967. It was with these proceeds, Husna said, that she became the owner of two Karachi properties, a Moorish style villa called Manzil, in close proximity to Bhutto’s Clifton abode Al Zulfiqar, as well as a cottage at Hawk’s Bay, and later a flat in London, amongst other investments. It is anybody’s guess whether Bhutto himself or those seeking his favour were her actual benefactors.

Finally in 1969, Ahad divorced his errant wife. Bhutto was on the verge of marrying her when he got arrested, writes Mohsin. Disenchanted, she stayed out of his way for many months. The first day she returned to her home in Karachi, he silently came and stood behind her. Thinking it was her sister, she asked her what she wanted, turning around to see him weeping uncontrollably.

“How can you do this to me?” he asked her. “You are my destiny.”

“He cried like a child and made me promise I would never leave him,” said Husna, “I realized that day how much I loved him.”

Bhutto had charisma, charm, ambition and a keen intelligence

A rare photo of Husna Sheikh from the 70s

Stanley Wolpert in his 1993 biography Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times writes that though Husna was a ravishing beauty, it was not simply her physical charms that hypnotised Bhutto. She told Wolpert that she was the first woman the philandering politician had ever loved who could think, talk and understand power politics as he did. Even as she sated Bhutto, she stimulated his mind, body and spirit, “rousing him to peaks of excitement he had never known”.

Pandering to his massive ego, Husna and ZAB discussed politics and world affairs after “the flames of passion had died down….For Zulfi’s proud, vain, arrogant, insecure, clever, scheming, easily bored, spoiled psyche nothing was as comforting as a beautiful woman who devoted herself fully to his needs, desires, and dreams, rousing his hopes and calming his darkest fears,” Wolpert writes.

According to Husna, soon after Bhutto became Prime Minister in 1971, he married her in December of that year. The clandestine nikkah was performed by Maulana Kausar Niazi and was witnessed by Mustapha Khar. As a marriage gift she received a Koran inscribed simply in Bhutto’s own hand with the words, “To my wife Husna.” Neither the Koran, nor the nikkahnama were ever found though years later the martial law government conducted many raids to recover them.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan

Bhutto & Qaddafi greeting each other at the
historic Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting 22nd-24th February 1974 in Lahore

ZA & Benazir Bhutto with Indian PM Indira Gandhi at the signing of the Simla Agreement in 1972

With Shah of Iran’s Empress Farah Deeba Pahlavi, 1972

Stanley Wolpert in his 1993 biography Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times writes that though Husna was a ravishing beauty, it was not simply her physical charms that hypnotised Bhutto. She told Wolpert that she was the first woman the philandering politician had ever loved who could think, talk and understand power politics as he did. Even as she sated Bhutto, she stimulated his mind, body and spirit, “rousing him to peaks of excitement he had never known” 

Rumour has it that upon hearing the news of the marriage, Begum Nusrat Bhutto tried to commit suicide with an overdose of pills in Islamabad and was hospitalised at the Civil Military Hospital Rawalpindi. Husna had wanted Bhutto to claim her publicly, but he ended up promising Nusrat that she would remain the official First Lady, and he would refrain from giving Husna his name.

However, Husna was compensated handsomely by becoming the power behind the throne. From the time Bhutto became Prime Minister in December 1971 until the coup in 1977 when Husna sought refuge in London, she ran a shadow kitchen cabinet at her Karachi residence Manzil. Bhutto would meet her at least 4 to 5 times a month and never stayed away from her for more than ten days at a time. She even accompanied him on official trips abroad, though in an unofficial capacity. What better way was there to seek out the Prime Minister than when he was in a relaxed and jovial mood while being entertained by his favourite? Ministers and senior party officials desirous of currying the PM’s favour eagerly sought an invitation to Manzil and Husna’s ear. Many political appointments were decided in this way.

Socialist Bhutto, founder of the PPP

From the time Bhutto became Prime Minister in December 1971 until the coup in 1977 when Husna sought refuge in London, she ran a shadow kitchen cabinet at her Karachi residence Manzil….What better way was there to seek out the Prime Minister than when he was in a relaxed and jovial mood while being entertained by his favourite?

“Husna Sheikh was the Madame de Pompadour (official mistress of Louis XV, who helped him run France) of Pakistan,” said PPP politician Salman Taseer.

Husna recalls of Bhutto, the political leader and PM, “He believed in his own mission, but he believed his hands were tied. Kemal Ataturk was his great hero. I would ask him why he was in such a hurry. To which Zulfi would reply that he was in a hurry because he knew they were going to kill him.”

She also said that the elections of 1977 were not rigged by him, but by his Chief Ministers. “Will someone tell my CMs not to ruin 20 years of my hard work?” he asked her. The situation soon snowballed out of his control.

The Bhutto family taking the air in Murree

When the General Zia led military coup occurred, Husna said she was already in London where her eldest daughter was delivering a baby. She did not return. Though she was deeply resented by Benazir, who had obviously sided with her mother, Husna said Murtaza kept her in touch with Bhutto’s ordeal over the next two years, while ZAB was confined in a cramped prison cell, rapidly losing his health.

First, Husna hired British lawyer John Mathews to defend Bhutto in his murder trial held before the Lahore High Court, but the Pakistan government disallowed it on grounds that a foreign lawyer could not appear in a court until he had practised in Pakistan for a year. Then, she claimed to have pleaded with Sheikha Fatima to have the Emir Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ask Zia for clemency in the sentencing, but Zia turned a deaf ear. When Nusrat and Benazir visited Bhutto in jail in April 1979, Murtaza told Husna, it would be the family’s last meeting with him. He was hanged the next day.

At the Dir helipand on 11th Nov 1976—Can you tell from the Chief of Army Staff General Zia ul Haq’s duplicitous smile with which he is greeting PM Bhutto that he will overthrow him in a coup and have him hanged the very next year?

Generals Zia ul Haq & Akhtar Abdur Rehman with PM ZA Bhutto in Murree

Under arrest, Bhutto being made to the rounds of the court houses

An ailing and weakened Bhutto at the prison hospital

When the General Zia led military coup occurred, Husna said she was already in London where her eldest daughter was delivering a baby. She did not return

After Bhutto’s hanging, a deep depression took a hold of Husna and she contemplated suicide she said. However, she managed to pull herself out and has gone on to live out the rest of her life in relative peace and prosperity. Her union with Bhutto produced her youngest daughter Shahmeen and it was the thoughts of her family that gave her the strength to continue.

Husna is now a beautifully preserved octogenarian. She never remarried. And on April 4th 2016 falls ZAB’s 37th death anniversary.

By Mahlia Lone

In a case of art imitating life, Madhubala and Dilip Kumar played star crossed lovers in the Indian film classic Mughal-e-Azam while nursing broken hearts over each other themselves, in her case quite literally

In 1942 Bombay, a tall, good looking Yusufzai Pathan who had recently gotten fired from his job at the Imperial Tabacco Company in New Delhi and relocated there with his wife and eleven children, took his angelic looking nine year old daughter Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi and made the rounds of the studios in the hopes for finding a job for her. Soon Baby Mumtaz was given a small film role and subsequently became the sole breadwinner of her family. Though the father thought of himself as a self respecting Pathan, the truth was that he was extremely domineering and controlling of his star daughter because he was greedy for her income. This is what determined the course of her short and tragic life.

Born on Valentine’s Day 1933 a ‘blue’ baby (due to oxygen deprivation) with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) colloquially known as a hole in the heart that was undetected till she was in her 20s, Baby Mumtaz did not have a happy childhood. Five of her eleven siblings died in childhood due to their poverty stricken circumstances and even their small house in Bombay burned down due to a dock explosion in 1944. With no house, no job and six daughters to support, Ataullah Khan decided to use his prettiest daughter’s good looks to their advantage and she embarked upon a film career that lasted mostly from 1942 to 1960, though she made a few films in the 60s also. Her younger sister Madhur Bhaushan said in a Filmfare interview, ‘‘What do I say of her beauty? We suffered from a complex when we stood beside her. Being Pathans we were all tall, fair and had long hair.  But none of us sisters looked like her. We weren’t a patch on Apa.”

 It has been reported that a najoomi (fortuneteller) known as Kashmirwalle baba, predicted that Baby Mumtaz would grow up to be larger than life, “Badi hokar ye ladki bahot naam kamayegi, Bahot paisa aur shohorat paayegi, lekin (this girl will earn prestige, money and fame but) she will lead a very unhappy life with broken love affairs, a loveless marriage and will die at an early age.” His predictions proved to be ominously correct.

Spotting her talent and good looks, actress Devika Rani, founder of the movie studio Bombay Talkies, advised a teenage Mumtaz to assume the screen name Madhubala, meaning honey belle, because whenever she smiled she looked like a blossoming flower. Her first lead role, at the age of 14, was opposite Raj Kapoor in Neel Kamal (1947).  Madhubala tasted mega stardom at only 16 in 1949 in Kamal Amrohi directed supernatural suspense thriller Mahal in which she plays a ghost. Overnight she became one the most sought after Indian actresses and sex symbols of the Fifties, known as the Marilyn Monroe of Bollywood and the Venus of India. In this blockbuster, the popular song Aayega aanewaala was sung by a teenage Lata Mangeshkar, singing playback for the first time.

“She was extremely popular and I think the only star for whom people thronged outside the gates. Very often when shooting was over, there’d be a vast crowd standing at the gates just to have a look at Madhu. It wasn’t so for anyone else. That was her personal effect on fans. Her personality was so vivacious,” said the love of her life Dilip Kumar

Other significant films of Madhubala’s career belonged to such different genres as Mehboob Khan directed psychological drama Amar (1954), Guru Dutt’s  satire Mr. & Mrs. ‘55 (1955), Satyen Bose’s comedy Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Samanta’s mystery Howrah Bridge (1958), Kamal Asif’s period tragedy Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Santoshi’s romantic Barsaat Ki Raat (1960). Her film Hanste Aansoo (1950) was the first ever Hindi film to get a scandalous (for its time) adults only (A) rating from the Central Board of Film Certification. She worked with the most popular heroes of her time, including Ashok Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Raj Kapoor, Pradeep Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Dev Anand. Her memorable performance in Mughal-e-Azam established her as a timeless film icon.

Appearing in the American magazine Theatre Arts’ August 1952 issue, Madhubala was featured in an article titled: The Biggest Star in the World – and she’s not in Beverly Hills. The prestigious Life magazine also featured her in a glossy article. Academy Award winner American director Frank Capra, while visiting Bombay for the International Film Festival of India, even offered her chance to work in a Hollywood movie in a significant role, which she could have done because she had a private English tutor, but her father was not interested in loosening his iron grip.

In their 1962 book Self-Portrait, Harish Booch and Karing Doyle comment that “unlike other stars, Madhubala prefers a veiled secrecy around her and is seldom seen in social gatherings or public functions. Contrary to general belief; Madhubala is rather simple and unassuming.”

Dilip Kumar is considered one of India’s greatest actors, holding the Guinness World Record for winning the maximum number of awards by an Indian actor with a record 8 wins of the Filmfare Best Actor Award and 19 nominations. Acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray called him “the ultimate method actor” 

“She was aware of her beauty,” reminisces B. K. Karanjia, former Filmfare editor and a close friend of both Madhubala and her father, “and because there were so many in love with her, she used to play one against the other. But it was out of innocence rather than shrewd calculation.”

Co-star Dev Anand recalls, “She liked to flirt and was great fun.”

 “She was extremely popular and I think the only star for whom people thronged outside the gates. Very often when shooting was over, there’d be a vast crowd standing at the gates just to have a look at Madhu. It wasn’t so for anyone else. That was her personal effect on fans. Her personality was so vivacious,” said the love of her life Dilip Kumar.

Madhur describes her sister, “She loved wearing plain white saris. At home she’d wear maxis. She loved mogras (jasmine) in her hair. She was fond of gold and kundan jewellery. She was also fond of sher shayri (poetry) as she knew a bit of Urdu. An English tutor also came home to teach her. She loved eating chaat and kulfi. She’d never diet. Those days actresses were healthy women, not size zero! She’d drive all of us to Chowpatty in her imported cars, Hillman, Buick and a station wagon but she’d wear a burqa (abaya) to hide her identity. When she’d be pulled up by the traffic police for that, she’d plead, ‘Please let me wear it or else I’ll get mobbed’. She even went to watch movies in a burqa. Apa became a craze because she was never seen in public. She wasn’t allowed to attend any function, any premiere. She had no friends. But she never resisted, she was obedient.  Being protective, my father earned the reputation of being domineering. He was asked why he’d made her join films in the first place. He’d say, ‘I had 12 children. We would’ve starved to death. I’ve lost my sons who could’ve been my support.’

The early Fifties were Madhubala’s best years. She was rapturously and ecstatically in love and exuded happiness. Recalling those days, her friend Gulshan Ewing says, “She thrust on me the mantle of ‘confidante’. Many were the whispered conversations she had with me, all rustling with the same rhythm — Yusuf, Yusuf, Yusuf. She was so in love, the light leapt out and dazzled everyone. She would squeal when his name was mentioned, she would blush and perspire when his presence was imminent”

Apa was emotional by nature. She’d be in tears in seconds. We’d keep wondering what had happened. And she’d laugh easily too. The moment she began laughing, she couldn’t stop. She wasn’t religious but was God-fearing. She didn’t fast but prayed once a day.”

Madhubala’s father kept a constant check on her movements. Madhubala  kept a diary on daily basis like many of the young girls of her time. In this diary, she kept a full account of her romantic involvements, but her father buried the book with her in her grave.

Born Muhammad Yusuf Khan on 11th December 1922 in Peshawar, Dilip Kumar is considered one of India’s greatest actors, holding the Guinness World Record for winning the maximum number of awards by an Indian actor with a record 8 wins of the Filmfare Best Actor Award and 19 nominations. Acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray called him “the ultimate method actor.”

Like Madhubala, he too belonged to a large Pathan Muslim family. He came from a Hindko speaking Awan family and was one of 12 children of Lala Ghulam Sarwar, an orchard owner and fruit merchant. The family moved to Bombay, where Yusuf attended the prestigious Barnes School. While in his teens, he fought with his father, moved out of the family house and started a successful café at the Army Club in Pune, from which he saved up Rs. 5,000, a prodigious amount of money at the time. After his army contract ended, he too met Devika Rani who offered him a film contract worth annually Rs. 1250 working in the Bombay Talkies script department because of his excellent command over Urdu. Impressed with his charm and good looks, she changed his name to the more Hindu sounding Dilip Kumar and cast him as the lead in Jwar Bhatta (1944). He also led the cast in Shaukat Hussain Rizvi’s Jugnu (1947) opposite Nur Jehan.

Again similar to Madhubala, Dilip Kumar became extremely successful and popular in the 1950s. He starred in the melodrama Babul (1950) opposite Nargis, as the alcoholic ‘Tragedy King’ in Chakraborty directed Daag (1952) opposite Nimmi, as a swashbuckler in Mahboob Khan’s Aan (1953), as a dark hero opposite Madhubala in Amar (1954),  in Bimal Roy’s Devdas (1955), in Sriramulu Naidu’s comedy Azad (1955) opposite Meena Kumari, as a Roman prince in Bimal Roy’s Yahudi (1958) also opposite Meena Kumari, and in yet another Bimal Roy this time a suspense thriller Madhumati (1958) opposite Vyjanthimala. He was advised by a British psychiatrist to not play too many dark and depressing roles, which is why he went against type and started doing light comedic roles.

In yet another uncanny similarity with Madhubala, Dilip too was offered a plum role in a foreign English language film, in his case the role of Sherif Ali in British director David Lean’s classic Lawrence of Arabia (1962), but he declined it. The role eventually went to the Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. In his autobiography Dilip Kumar: The Substance And The Shadow, he expresses no regrets but simply writes, “Omar Sharif had played the role far better than I myself could have.”

In 1960, Kamal Asif’s big-budget epic period film Mughal-e-Azam was released to critical and box office success. It is still the second highest grossing film in Hindi film history (in today’s currency value terms). Dilip Kumar plays the role of Prince Salim (later Emperor Jehangir) who revolts against his father Emperor Akbar (played by Prithviraj Kapoor) and falls in love with a courtesan (played by Madhubala). The film considered a classic was fully colourized and re-released in 2004, 44 years after its initial release. In the time that ensued between Dilip and Madhubala being cast together in their first film together Tarana (1951) and their controversial film Nayya Daur (1957) marked the beginning and end of their memorable but doomed romance.

Madhubala already had a few short lived broken romances when she hooked up with Dilip Kumar. “Madhubala was an extremely passionate and impulsive person,” says Khatija Akbar in her biography I Want To Live: The Story of Madhubala. Because she was lonely, she would approach men with a red rose and a handwritten note stating, “Accept it if you love me.”

Her sister Madhu recalls, ‘‘Apa fell in love with (actor) Premnath. Their relationship lasted six months. It broke on grounds of religion. He asked her to convert and she refused.”

Then, Madhubala, whose enigmatic smile and screen presence enthralled a nation, fell irrevocably in love with “the most charming man of the industry Dilip Kumar. He was not only a hugely successful movie star but a an impeccably well mannered man, one who treated women with love and respect,” writes Akbar.

Prior to this, Dilip had a romance with actress Kamini Kaushal who had been married by her family to her deceased sister’s husband to take care of their child. Though Dilip was willing to marry her, Kamini’s brother didn’t approve of the match and the relationship ended.

First meeting on the sets of the film Jwar Bhata (1944), Dilip and Madhubala fell in love during the shooting of Tarana in 1951 when she was 18 to his 29. They were both single. She presented him with her customary red rose and a whirlwind romance followed. They also became a popular onscreen pair appearing in a total of four films together.

‘Dilip saab urged her repeatedly — again and again. He asked if this meant she was not willing to marry him. He told her if he went away now, he would never return. Madhubala was silent. At last, he got up and left — alone and out of her life’

Actor Shammi Kapoor recalls in an interview, “Dilip Kumar would drive down from Bombay to meet Madhubala … she was committed to Dilip … he even flew to Bombay to spend Eid with her, taking time off from his shooting stint …Her inability to leave her family was her greatest drawback for it had to be done at some time.”

 The couple quickly became intimate and inseparable. They were expected to get married. The early Fifties were Madhubala’s best years. She was rapturously and ecstatically in love and exuded happiness. Recalling those days, her friend Gulshan Ewing says, “She thrust on me the mantle of ‘confidante’. Many were the whispered conversations she had with me, all rustling with the same rhythm — Yusuf, Yusuf, Yusuf. She was so in love, the light leapt out and dazzled everyone. She would squeal when his name was mentioned, she would blush and perspire when his presence was imminent.”

 But Madhubala’s father, Ataullah Khan, did not approve of Dilip Kumar. “The reason was simple: money. Madhubala had been providing for her family for more than a decade. Marriage would end that, Khan feared,” writes Akbar. During the shoot of Naya Daur (1957) Khan’s interfering ways led to a standoff with the film’s director and eventually a court case. During the cross-examinations details about Madhubala and Dilip’s love affair came out and were revealed by the press. In the final days of the trial, Dilip declared in the court that he loved Madhubala and will continue to love her until his death. Finally, there was an out of court settlement. It was the final nail in the coffin for the relationship because Dilip had sided with the director against Madhubala’s father.

Madhur describes their relationship: “She met Bhaijan (brother Dilip Kumar) on the sets of Tarana. They later worked in Sangdil, Amar and Mughal-e-Azam.  It was a nine year long affair. They even got engaged. Unki apa aayee thi, chunni lekar. (His sister had come with a ring as is the custom.) Bhaijan was also a Pathan. Contrary to reports, my father never stopped her from getting married. We already had enough money by then and were financially secure. Apa and Bhaijan looked made for each other. He’d often come home. He has even seen me in my school uniform. He was respectful towards us children and addressed us with ‘aap’. The two would go for a drive or sit in the room and talk.

The breakup with Dilip Kumar happened due to the court case during the filming of Naya Daur in the mid ’50s. The unit was to shoot somewhere in Gwalior.  During the shooting of another film Jabeen Jaleel, at the same location, a mob had attacked the women and even torn their clothes off. My father was wary and just asked that the locale be changed. It’s not that he didn’t let her go outdoors. Apa had shot in Mahableshwar, Hyderabad and other places before. Bhaijan called my father ‘a dictator’ in court and sided with the Chopras. Apa used to cry a lot those days. They had conversations on the phone trying to patch up. He kept saying, ‘Leave your father and I’ll marry you’. She’d say, ‘I’ll marry you but just come home, say sorry and hug him.’He refused, so Madhubala left him. That one ‘sorry’ could have changed her life. It was zid (stubborness and ego) which destroyed their love. My father never asked her to break the engagement or ever demanded an apology from him.

Madhubala was confined to bed for nine years and reduced to just bones and skin. She’d keep crying, ‘Mujhe zinda rehna hai, mujhe marna nahin hai, doctor kab ilaaj nikalenge?’ (I want to live, I don’t want to die, wonder when the doctors will find a cure?)

Dilip Kumar said of his ladylove Madhubala, “She was a very, very obedient daughter and who, in spite of the success, fame and wealth, submitted to the domination of her father and more often than not paid for his mistakes. Actresses those days faced a lot of difficulties and constraints in their career. Unable to assert themselves too much, they fell back on their families who became their caretakers and defined everything for them.”

In his candid autobiography, Dilip reveals his side of the story. He writes, “Was I in love with Madhubala as the newspapers and magazines reported at that time? As an answer to this oft-repeated question straight from the horse’s mouth, I must admit that I was attracted to her both as a fine co-star and as a person who had some of the attributes I hoped to find in a woman at that age and time. We had viewers admiring our pairing in Tarana and our working relationship was warm and cordial. She, as I said earlier, was very sprightly and vivacious and, as such, she could draw me out of my shyness and reticence effortlessly. She filled a void that was crying out to be filled, not by an intellectually sharp woman but a spirited woman whose liveliness and charm were the ideal panacea.

The announcement of our pairing in Mughal-e-Azam made sensational news in the early 1950s because of the rumours about our emotional involvement. In fact, K Asif (the film’s director) was ecstatic with the wide publicity and trade enquiries he got from the announcement. It was not anticipated or planned that it would be in production for such a long period as it was. Asif was aware of Madhu’s feelings for me because she had confided in him during one of their intimate talks. And, he was equally aware of my nature as a man who made no haste in taking critical personal or professional decisions. As was his wont, he took it upon himself to act as the catalyst and went to the extent of encouraging her in vain to pin me down somehow. He went on to advise her that the best way to draw a commitment from an honourable and principled Pathan, brought up on Old World values, was to draw him into physical intimacy.

In retrospect, I feel he did what any selfish director would have done for his own gain of creating riveting screen chemistry between actors who are known to be emotionally involved. Also, I sensed Asif was seriously trying to mend the situation for her when matters began to sour between us, thanks to her father’s attempt to make the proposed marriage a business venture. The outcome was that half way through the production of Mughal-e–Azam, we were not even talking to each other. The classic scene with the feather coming between our lips, which set a million imaginations on fire, was shot when we had completely stopped even greeting each other. It should, in all fairness, go down in the annals of film history as a tribute to the artistry of two professionally committed actors who kept aside personal differences and fulfilled the director’s vision of a sensitive, arresting and sensuous screen moment to perfection.

Contrary to popular notions, her father, Ataullah Khan was not opposed to her marrying me. He had his own production company and would have been only too glad to have two stars under the same roof. Had I not seen the whole business from my own point of view, it would have been just what he wanted, that is Dilip Kumar and Madhubala holding hands and singing duets in his productions till the end of our careers. When I learned about his plans from Madhu, I explained to both of them that I had my own way of functioning and selecting projects and I would not show any laxity even if it were my own production house. It must have tilted the apple cart for him and he successfully convinced Madhu that I was being rude and presumptuous. I told her in all sincerity and honesty that I did not mean any offence and it was in her interest and mine as artistes to keep our professional options away from any personal considerations. She was naturally inclined to agree with her father and she persisted in trying to convince me that it would all be sorted out once we married. My instincts, however, predicted a situation in which I would be trapped and all the hard work and dedication I had invested in my career would be blown away by a hapless surrender to someone else’s dictates and strategies. In the circumstances, therefore, it seemed best that we did not decide to marry or even give each other a chance to rethink because my resolve by then had become strongly against a union that would not be good for either of us.”

The truth probably lies between these two versions. Madhubala, knowing the seriousness of her condition, knew that she need the fallback support of her family when her health would eventually deteriorate.

It has also been reported that during the making of Dhake ki Malmal (1956) the actor Om Prakash was on the sets of the film when he was startled by a message from Dilip Kumar who asked to see him. Dilip was with Madhubala in her makeup room and the atmosphere was tense. Om Prakash was requested to simply sit down and be a witness to the happenings. He watched as Dilip Kumar implored Madhubala, asking her to go with him and be married that very day. He had a qazi (priest) ready and waiting at his home and he wanted her to leave with him immediately. “I will marry her today,” he emphasized. It was the condition that he put forth that became the stumbling block: She would have to leave her father and never meet him again. Madhubala’s refrain was that this was impossible, and apart from this, she said nothing. ‘Dilip saab urged her repeatedly — again and again. He asked if this meant she was not willing to marry him. He told her if he went away now, he would never return. Madhubala was silent. At last, he got up and left — alone and out of her life.’”

For the next few years, she drowned her sorrows with work, but the fabulous smile no longer reached her eyes. “She must have been miserable, but she wouldn’t show it,” comments Sushila Rani Patel.

“An ethereal beauty,” said Gulshan Ewing, “whose eyes were always sad, but whose lips were always smiling.” In the presence of her trusted friends and colleagues or in the privacy of her makeup room, there were times when sobs racked Madhubala. It seemed the pair continued to pine for each other from afar after their break up. Dilip drowned his sorrows in alcohol just as he had done in numerous films playing the jilted lover.

Madhubala was literally nursing a broken heart. ‘‘The hole in her heart (ventricular septal defect) was detected when she was shooting for SS Vasan’s Chalak (1954) in Madras. She had vomited blood. She was advised bed rest for three months but continued working as her films would suffer,” said Madhur.

One researcher writes, “Madhubala vomiting blood on the set was an ominous sign that electrified the Indian media. The history of her heart defect that came to public light as the mid-1950s brought her a string of failures, earning her the label ‘box office poison.’ With skyrocketing notoriety, no longer was Madhubala’s illness a family secret.”

In 1953, Madhubala had been chosen to play the definitive role of her career as Anarkali. Bunny Reuben in his Book Dilip Kumar: Star Legend of Indian Cinema claimed that Dilip’s role was instrumental behind this selection given her history of illness. From beginning to end the film took nine years to complete so during the filming of their magnum opus, the relationship between the two stars was already over.

“For Mughal-e- Azam a film whose production was delayed for years, Madhubala and Dilip Kumar played the star-crossed lovers, Salim and Anarkali. It was their first meeting after their break-up. Madhubala was a pallid shadow of her former self,” writes Akbar.

The film’s production schedule ironically mirrored the stars real life love story. During much of the filming, Dilip felt bitter and was not even talking to Madhubala except when shooting required a dialogue delivery with her, but they both remained thorough professionals and didn’t let their inner turmoil mar their acting. Just as in the story Madhubala’s character Anarkali is compelled into convincing Dilip’s character Salim that she really does not love him, so did Madhubala keep her composure throughout the filming. The tragic final scene when a trapped Anarkali watches with terrified eyes the brick wall that is built around her, so was the real young woman terrified and trapped by her own deteriorating body.

By the late 1950s, her health was deteriorating fast, worsened with the rigors of the shoot. Director K. Asif remained blissfully unaware the strain that the long shooting schedules were making on her health. She bravely posed as a veiled statue in suffocating makeup for hours under the studio lights and being shackled and dragging heavy chains. Madhur said. “While shooting for Mughal-e-Azam she was tied with chains and had to walk around with them. That was stressful. By the end of the day her hands would turn blue. She’d even refuse food saying that she had to look anguished and weary for the jail scenes.”

“The lives of Madhubala and her screen character are consistently seen as overlapping, it is because of the overwhelming sense of loss and tragedy and the unrelenting diktat of destiny that clung to both and which neither could escape,” writes Akbar.

Madhubala found solace in the company of singer/actor Kishore Kumar who converted to Islam and took up the name Karim Abdul, until her death in 1969.“Madhubala was an uncomplicated person. She was famous and rich but lonely. She needed company and perhaps she thought Kishoreji would be the balm to her feelings,” Akbar writes.

Madhubala needed stability in her life and Kishore is reported to have needed financial help. At the time of this marriage, he owed huge amount of tax arrears to the Income Tax department, which had already assessed his Juhu House for auctioning off to pay this. Kishore thought that his rich wife could help him out financially. But Madhubala had severe health problems and was herself looking for a saviour. It was not till 1969 when the song Mere sapnon ki rani from the film Aradhana became a huge hit that Kishore’s  fortunes changed drastically and he remained a hugely successful singer until his death in 1987, upon which he left behind Rs. 4 crore worth of assets.

“On the rebound Apa got involved with Kishore Kumar who was going through a divorce with Ruma Devi Guha Thakurta (actor/singer). What attracted her to Kishore? Maybe it was his singing or maybe his ability to make her laugh. Their love affair went on for three years through Chalti Ka Naam Gadi and Half Ticket. They got married in 1960, when she was 27. After marriage they flew to London where the doctor told her she had only two years to live. (A corrective surgery was not possible at the time.) If a 27-year-old is told that she has two years to live, what her state will be?” poses Madhur. “Due to her ailment, her body would produce extra blood, which would spill out from her nose and mouth. The doctor would come home and extract bottles of blood. She also suffered from pulmonary pressure of the lungs. She coughed all the time. Every four to five hours she had to be given oxygen or else would get breathless. After that Kishore left her at our house saying, ‘I can’t look after her. I’m on outdoors often’. But she wanted to be with him. He’d visit her once in two months though. Maybe he wanted to detach himself from her so that the final separation wouldn’t hurt. But he never abused her as was reported. He bore her medical expenses. They remained married for nine years, while she was confined to bed and reduced to just bones and skin. She’d keep crying, ‘Mujhe zinda rehna hai, mujhe marna nahin hai, doctor kab ilaaj nikalenge?’ (I want to live; I don’t want to die.When will the doctors will find a cure?)”

Ashok Kumar defended his brother Kishore in a Filmfare interview: “Madhubala suffered a lot and her illness made her very bad-tempered. She often fought with Kishore, and would take off to her father’s house where she spent most of her time.”

Madhu said about Madhubala’s eventual demise, “Though Bhaijan (Dilip) never visited her when she was unwell, he flew down from Madras to pay his last respects at the kabrastan (cemetery). Food was sent from his home to ours for three days. I remember when Bhaijan married Saira Banu (22 year old ingénue and half his age) in 1966, Apa was sad because she loved him. She’d say, ‘Unke naseeb mein woh (Saira Banu) thi, main nahin’. But she’d also say, ‘He’s got married to a very pretty girl. She’s so devoted. I’m very happy for him.’ But a vacuum remained in her heart.

A few years back her tomb was demolished as it was in a Wahabi (a Muslim sect that doesn’t allow building of tombs) cemetery. They wiped away the last memories of a legend.’’

On March 18, 2008, a commemorative postage stamp featuring Madhubala was issued by India Post in a limited edition presentation pack. It was launched by her yesteryear actors Nimmi and Manoj Kumar in a ceremony attended by colleagues, friends and surviving members of Madhubala’s family.

Dilip Kumar went on to achieve a legendary film career. The government of India awarded him with the Padma Bhushan (third highest civilian award) in 1991,the Dadasaheb Phalke (highest award in cinema) in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan (second highest civilian award) in 2015 for his achievements in Indian cinema. In 1998, the government of Pakistan awarded him the Nishan-e-Pakistan, (the country’s highest civilian award) making him only the second Indian to receive this honour. Now at a frail 93, Dilip lives a retired with his wife Saira.

By Mahlia Lone

The Hashemite royal dynasty of Jordan can trace back its ancestry to Hashim ibn ‘Abd Manaf in the sixth century, Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) great-grandfather. From the 10th century to 1924 when the House of Saud gained power over Saudi Arabia, the Hashemites ruled Mecca with one from the tribe being selected as the Sharif (religious leader) and Emir of Mecca. When the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith, the Sultan started making the selection of the Emir from amongst the Hashemite tribe. thus, Sharif Hussein ibn Ali was appointed as Sharif and Emir of Mecca by Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1908 just before World War I. With the waning of the Ottoman Empire’s power and influence, the Emir saw a chance to secure his family’s position as hereditary Emirs; hence, he led the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, urged on by the British. As a reward, his two sons were made Kings in 1921 by the British. Abdullah was made King of Jordan, while Faisal, who was earlier briefly King of Syria, was compensated with the throne of Iraq. His grandson King Faisal II was subsequently overthrown and murdered in a coup in 1958 when the Baathists took over Iraq, but the Jordanian royal family proved to be more progressive and resilient and have held on to their throne

It is to this family that Prince Hassan bin Talal was born on 20 March 1947 in Amman, the younger son of King Talal and Queen Zein al-Sharaf. His elder brother Hussein was destined for the throne, but Prince Hassan was for 33 years his chosen Crown Prince after the constitution was especially amended for this in 1965. During King Hussein’s absences from the country, Hassan would fill his shoes as Regent. But in a surprising turn of events, the King replaced him with his eldest son just days before he died in January 1999. There was much speculation in the media about this. One theory was that his Pakistani wife Princess Sarvath, considering the royal palace hers a bit prematurely while King Hussein was in the U.S. fighting for his life in a battle against cancer, ordered redecoration of the palace apartments to her liking. The King heard of her maneuverings and scrambling to establish control and finding her haste distasteful, chose to pass on the crown to his son instead. The Princess famously also didn’t get along with American born Queen Noor, King Hussein’s fourth wife who of course wanted her young son Prince Hamzah to inherit the throne. Not capitulating to pressure from external elements, the King wisely chose his eldest son (from his second wife) to replace him. Moderate King Abdullah II and his beautiful, charming and intelligent Palestinian origin wife Queen Rania have proven to be exceptionally popular monarchs. Approximately half of Jordanian citizens have Palestinian roots.

Let’s meet the Prince and Princess, who in this way, were sidestepped by history.

After early schooling in Amman, Prince Hassan attended English public schools, Summer Fields and Harrow. He graduated from Christ Church College at Oxford University with a BA and an MA. He speaks Arabic, English, French, German, Turkish, Spanish and even Hebrew. Known as the thoughtful ‘Philosopher Prince’, he has been awarded an impressive 25 honorary degrees from universities all over the world, including USA, UK, Brazil, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Indonesia, Germany, Turkey and Pakistan. Additionally, he has worked for world and Middle East peace, which he refers to as “Muddle East” in an interview. Prince Hassan has served as the President Emeritus of the World Conference of Religions for Peace and has defended pluralism, human rights and promotes tolerance and understanding through dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews.

King Hussein replaced Crown Prince Hassan with his eldest son Abdullah just days before he died in January 1999. There was much speculation in the media about this. One theory was that his Pakistani wife Princess Sarvath, considering the royal palace hers a bit prematurely while King Hussein was in the U.S. fighting for his life in a battle against cancer, ordered redecoration of the palace apartments to her liking. King Hussein heard of her maneuverings and scrambling to establish control and finding her haste distasteful, chose to pass on the crown to his eldest son instead

One interviewer writes, “The Prince’s efforts to promote understanding between the Islamic and Western Worlds are crucial at a time when we seem to be drifting apart, with perceived differences appearing to overwhelm the many things we have in common, both culturally and religiously.”

In recognition of his efforts, he was awarded the 2008 Abraham Geiger Award and the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Worship in 2014. He has received 33 awards and prizes in total, including Knight Grand Crosses, Medals, Medallions, and Grand Decoration of Honour with Sash (Austria). He has also served on 15 committees, mostly educational boards or related to academics and is the author of seven books and numerous articles in different languages. On 10 June 2013, he was also appointed as the Chairman of the Advisory Board on Water and sanitation (UNSGAB) by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Princess Sarvath (nee Ikramullah) was born in pre-Partition Calcutta just three months after Hassan. Her Bhopali father Mohammed Ikramullah, was a senior Civil Servant and a member of Muslim League’s Partition Committee. After Pakistan gained independence, he became the country’s first Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and later Ambassador to Canada, France, Portugal and the UK. His last post was as Chairman of the Commonwealth Economic Committee. Sarvath’s mother, Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, was a Bengali writer, one of Pakistan’s first two female MNAs, Ambassador to Morocco and a delegate to the UN. Her uncles also held high offices in the Subcontinental governments; her paternal uncle Mohammad Hidayatullah was Vice-President of India and her maternal uncle Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was the Prime Minister of Bengal during the British Raj and later the fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan. Her mother’s paternal family traces their lineage back to the 14th-century Persian Sufi philosopher Shaikh Shabuddin Suhrawardy. Sarvath doesn’t belong to a royal, but a respected and educated family. Princess Sarvath has three siblings, including the late Bangladeshi barrister Salma Sobhan and the British-Canadian filmmaker Naz Ikramullah.

Though they are said to have met as eleven year olds in London in 1958, Hassan and Sarvath fell in love while studying at Oxford University and got married in Karachi on 28th August 1968. She was not a traditional choice for him. She was neither Jordanian, royal, nor beautiful, but they must have forged a strong connection. The Princess appears to be tenacious and has held on to her position as wife. King Hussein married four times, but Prince Hassan has had only one wife. They live in a lovely historic house in Amman and have four children together. Princess Rahma was born in 1969, Princess Sumaya in 1971, Princess Badiya followed in 1974 and the youngest a son Prince Rashid was born in 1979.

Princess Sarvath has served on many charitable organizations in Jordan, but she has also led a glamorous life accompanying Prince Hassan to royal events around the world, such as the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden in 2010 and the inauguration of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in 2013. In a 2013 appearance at Royal Ascot, she rode in pride of place with Queen Elizabeth II in her royal carriage. In fact at Prince Rashid’s wedding, it was observed that there was a greater number of European Royalty present than any other group. At most of these international events, Princess Sarvath chooses to wear silk saris in keeping with her Bengali heritage.

Hassan and Sarvath fell in love while studying at Oxford University and got married in Karachi on 28th August 1968. She was not a traditional choice for him. She was neither Jordanian, royal, nor beautiful, but they must have forged a strong connection. The Princess appears to be tenacious and has held on to her position as wife. King Hussein married four times, but Prince Hassan has had only one wife

Princess Sarvath is sporty and enjoys skiing holidays, is the honorary President of the Jordanian Badminton Federation and was Jordan’s first female black belt in Taekwondo. She has kept up her connection to Pakistan with periodic visits, ordering outfits from fashion designers here, inviting Rizwan Beyg and others to hold fashion shows in Amman and commissioning interior designer Mian Ahad to do up her palace in Amman. She was also involved with charity fundraising for the Kashmir earthquake along with her son Prince Rashid who, as the President of the Hashemite Charity Organization, made visits here personally to oversee reconstruction of dwellings and rehabilitation of affectees. Princess Sarwat also contacted her friends, the royal families of Belgium, Denmark, England, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and Norway and Baden Aid (HRH The Margave of Baden in Germany)  to raise funds after the devastating quake.
Hassan and Sarvath’s daughters grew up to be strong and accomplished modern day princesses. Their eldest daughter Princess Rahma received BA and MA degrees from Cambridge University after attending Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset, like her sisters who followed her there. In 2007, she married Alaa Batayneh, former Senator Arif El Batayneh’s son. Alaa is the country’s current Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. The couple has two children together, Aysha who was born in 2002 and Arif, born in 2006.

Second daughter Sumaya graduated from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London and married Nasser Judeh, former Cabinet Minister Sami Judeh’s son. Nasser also served as Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. The couple has four children: Tariq, Zein, Ali and Sukayna, but they divorced subsequently in 2007. Princess Sumaya University for Technology, founded in 1991, is named after her. In 2006 she was appointed President of the Royal Scientific Society, Jordan’s leading applied research institute, by Prince Hassan. She also sits as Deputy-Chair of the Higher Council for Science and Technology, advising the State on public policy issues relating to science and technology. In addition, Sumaya founded the El Hassan Science City, inaugurated by King Abdullah II in 2007.

Princess Badiya attended Christ Church at Oxford, and then got a law diploma from The College of Law in London (where she met her future husband). She qualified as a barrister in 1998, being called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, the first member of the Jordanian Royal Family to become a lawyer. Next, she got her LLM in International Law from the London School of Economics. In 2005, she married Britisher Khaled Edward Blair in Amman and they have one son together named Ali. Khaled works as an investment banker in London. Speaking of her husband’s conversion to Islam, she said in an interview, “He became a Muslim before we married, but I was adamant that Ed’s conversion should be out of genuine religious conviction and not because of me. Would Ed have become a Muslim if he had never met me? Maybe not, it may not have occurred to him to look into it. As it was, he studied Islam and found that it was what he believed in already.”

Part of their wedding festivities in Amman was a Pakistani style mehndi (henna) ceremony at which she dressed up as a traditional Pakistani bride, complete with jhoomar (head ornament) and lehnga (long embroidered bridal skirt). Princess Badiya has been photographed in Pakistani embroidered shalwar kameez on many occasions. In the UK, she works at promoting interfaith and cross-cultural understanding, human rights and the rights of asylum seekers and refugees through the Muslim-led charity Mosaic, a mentoring programme for youth founded by Prince Charles, of which she is the Chairperson.

Prince Rashid attended Port Regis and Harrow schools, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and got his BA from Cambridge University. He joined the Jordanian Armed Forces as Captain and is currently serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Gendarmerie. In 2011, Prince Rashid had a grand royal wedding to Zeina Shaban at Amman’s Basman Palace. Zeina, a statuesque beauty and national table tennis champion, represented Jordan at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. The national flag bearer in Beijing, she had the whole country’s eyes on her. The Prince, himself a sporting enthusiast, looked jubilant at his wedding to the sporting star. The couple has a son Hassan, 2013. Prince Rashid has been head of the Jordan Amateur Boxing Association, and is the Captain of the Jordanian Polo Team and President of the Jordan Taekwondo Federation.

An enlightened thinker that wants to see the Muslim world progress, Prince Rashid wisely said in an interview, “If wealthy Arab nations would develop a communication strategy for public diplomacy whereby such wealth – $1 trillion in bank deposits – actually is seen to be doing something to improve the Muslim world’s lot via empowerment and concern for the poor, then you’d see an evolution. Our concern then would become super-national, whereby the issue wouldn’t be to try to beautify our image in the eyes of others, i.e. the West, rather to promote ourselves not by words but by deeds. But unfortunately at the present time, nobody is taking the initiative toward this super-national thinking. For example, I don’t see why there isn’t an international fund for zakat (alms), even until now.”

Let’s hope other Arab leaders follow his progressive thinking.

By Mahlia Lone

Long thought of as a confirmed bachelor, news of George Clooney’s impending nuptials with London-based barrister Amal Alamuddin sent shock waves through his legion of female fans. Overnight he went from being public domain to the committed partner of one. It was a move that he himself could not have foreseen; claiming he was just not marriage material and made “a lousy husband” after a short lived marriage to actress Talia Balsam in 1989 floundered in its early days. He also went against type when choosing a wife, going against the model/cocktail waitress type that he generally dated. On top of that, his chosen woman was of Middle Eastern descent and, gasp, a Druze Muslim!

Born George Timothy Clooney on May 6th 1961 in Kentucky, he is a suave, debonair and handsome Hollywood leading man of the Cary Grant variety. Additionally, Clooney is thoughtful, intelligent and a committed humanitarian with a broadcast journalist father and a mother with both beauty and brains, having served as a beauty pageant queen and city councilwoman. He has also descended on his mother’s side from the same stock as President Abraham Lincoln. We can rightly imagine then that politics and current affairs rather than show business dominated the dinner table conversation at the Clooney household of his childhood. A young George must have absorbed all that talk like a sponge and filed it away for future use. Growing up in a fervent Catholic household, George attended Catholic schools and was even an altar boy for a time. Rebelling against his childhood and with big dreams in his head, George dropped out of college. First, he tried out to play professional baseball for the Cincinnati Reds, but he did not make the team. Then, he moved to LA to pursue an acting career, like his aunt Rosemary Clooney, who was also a famous cabaret singer.

His first jobs were women’s shoe and door-to-door insurance salesman, construction worker and tobacco cutter. These minimum wage jobs supplemented his meager income from playing bit parts on TV while he was a student at the Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school for five years. Then came hit TV show ER in the early 90s, on which he played Dr. Doug Ross with Juliana Margulies (currently starring in The Good Wife on TV) as his nurse love interest, catapulting him to instant stardom. Handsome George became a household name and the object of lust for millions of women around the globe. During his five year run on ER, Clooney was lured to the silver screen. His first film was Robert Rodriguez directed From Dusk till Dawn in which sultry Mexican siren Salma Hayek famously does a sexy snake dance. Then, he did a romantic comedy, One Fine Day with established star Michelle Pfeiffer and the action thriller The Peacemaker with the then Mrs. Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman. Rising star George Clooney was next cast as a superhero in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin (1997) with Chris O’Donnell playing Robin and Steven Soderbergh directed cops and robbers flick Out Of Sight opposite a newly famous Latina, Jennifer Lopez in 1998. Next step was mega stardom with the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy. With a stellar ensemble cast, this heist movie was box office gold, a remake of a 1960 film starring Frank Sinatra. As Danny Ocean, Clooney led a modern day Rat Pack, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle, to name just a few of the actors bringing their combined star power to this fun blockbuster series.

In 2003, in opposition of the Iraq War, he said prophetically, “You can’t beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people seeking revenge… Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win… I believe (Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush) Donald Rumsfeld thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can’t beat anyone anymore”

Not content to rest on his acting laurels, in 2001, Clooney co-founded Section Eight Productions with Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh and the following year Clooney proceeded to venture into directing with the biographical spy thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, earning favourable reviews for his direction. In 2005, Clooney won his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the Middle East based political thriller Syriana that was inspired by the memoirs of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Robert Baer of his posting in the Middle East. In 2013, Clooney received the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing yet another political thriller Argo. As an actor, screenwriter, producer and director, Clooney is the only person so far who has been nominated for an Oscar in six different categories.

In 2006, Clooney started another production company named Smokehouse Pictures. That same year, Clooney received the American Cinematheque Award, honoring his “significant contribution to the art of motion pictures.” In the recent past, Clooney has co-starred with Sandra Bullock in the 2013 sci-fi thriller Gravity, as well as produced August: Osage County, starring the Academy Award winning actresses Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts that same year.

A serial dater, Clooney dated in succession the actress Kelly Preston, who went on to marry John Travolta, actress Ginger Lynn Allen, French reality TV personality Céline Balitran, British model and TV presenter Lisa Snowdon with whom he had an off and on five year relationship, Hollywood star Renée Zellweger, actress Krista Allen, reality personality Sarah Larson, Sophie Dahl English model, IT girl, author and granddaughter of children’s books celebrated author Roald Dahl, Italian lingerie model and TV host Elisabetta Canalis, and even a statuesque former WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) wrestler Stacy Keibler. Showing them off at award shows as arm candy, when his girlfriends, enjoying the limelight and the glamorous life on the arm of a Hollywood idol, became serious and wanted marriage he would promptly break up with them, politely reminding them that wasn’t part of the deal. Soon it became a running joke that just as one of his movies was named Good Night and Good Luck, so did that come at the end of a date with Mr. Clooney.

In September 2013, when Clooney met human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin at a charity fund raising dinner in Venice, he was discussing Middle East politics with the ease of a man who effortlessly commands an audience. She, however, was not impressed and quickly put him in his place. He was naturally intrigued, so used to women throwing themselves at him willy nilly

Clooney has admitted publicly that he greatly admires and looks up to his father Nick, so it was just a matter of time that he espoused worthy causes as a political activist and humanitarian. He supported the Democratic Party and President Obama in both his campaigns for the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. George is a staunch supporter of gay rights. In 2003, in opposition of the Iraq War, he said prophetically, “You can’t beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people seeking revenge… Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win… I believe (Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush) Donald Rumsfeld thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can’t beat anyone anymore.”

As a humanitarian, Clooney is involved with Not On Our Watch Project that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities, like the Armenian genocide, along with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, etc. He has raised funds for the 2004 Tsunami, 9/11 New York attack and for the 2010 Haiti earthquake victims by organizing the Hope for Haiti Now telethon to collect donations.

His most significant contribution has been to the Darfur conflict in Chad and Sudan to date. With his father he travelled to Africa in 2006 and made the TV special A Journey to Darfur, showing the dire situation of Darfur’s refugees. Then, he was the executive producer and narrator for the documentary film Sand and Sorrow, on the Darfur crisis. Additionally, he addressed a Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C. in the same year, and at the UN Security Council alongside Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel appealed the UN to find a solution to the conflict and help the people of Darfur. Clooney appeared in Don Cheadle produced 2007 documentary Darfur Now, to appeal to people all over the world to help stop the Darfur crisis. Clooney and Don Cheadle received the Summit Peace Award from the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. In his acceptance speech, Clooney said, “Don and I … stand here before you as failures. The simple truth is that when it comes to the atrocities in Darfur … those people are not better off now than they were years ago.” The United Nations announced Clooney’s appointment as a UN Messenger of Peace in 2008.

In September 2013, when Clooney met human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin at a charity fund raising dinner in Venice, he was discussing Middle East politics with the ease of a man who effortlessly commands an audience. She, however, was not impressed and quickly put him in his place. He was naturally intrigued, so used to women throwing themselves at him willy nilly. He asked for her number, which she refused to proffer, thinking him a serial womaniser. Finally, after much cajoling, he managed to get her email address. After doing some homework on her, he sent her this flirtatious email: “I think the reported hottest man in the world should meet with the hottest human rights lawyer in the world.” In her mid thirties and single, Amal had been voted the hottest barrister in London in 2013 by the blog Your Barrister Boyfriend. George Clooney has not only has been voted People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive on more than one occasion and No. 1 on TV Guide’s 50 Sexiest Stars of All Time list in 2005, but has also been included in 2009’s list of Time (magazine) 100 “Most Influential People in the World.” Amal that had prior to this in London been crying over several glasses of wine that she may never find a husband to her best friend, who later included this in her toast at the  grand Clooneywedding, was being courted by the world’s Most Eligible Bachelor, as he was dubbed by the press.

The chase was on. Shrewdly playing hard to get, Amal was cool at first, not responding to his emails. Then, finally, she replied. She couldn’t resist the heady allure of Clooney’s charms for long. They met for a dinner date at London hotspot Berner’s Tavern where they talked about a surveillance satellite program over Syria. On Valentine’s Day, they came out as a couple at a special White House screening of Clooney’s World War II movie The Monuments Men, where the two were photographed coyly holding hands. Not content just to wine and dine her, Clooney whisked off Amal to a string of luxe holidays at exotic locales from Seychelles to Tanzania (on a safari) and Mexico. His only stipulation to her was that she quit smoking, which she promptly gave up cold turkey.

Within six months they were engaged with a 7 carat, £500,000 emerald-cut diamond set in a platinum band. Clooney proposed over a home cooked pasta meal that he himself prepared. The engagement was celebrated at celebrity haunt Nobu in Malibu, where he had invited his friends, i.e. Cindy and Rande Gerber, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, and Edward Norton, to meet his fiancée after which he took her to Bono’s (lead singer of U2) party.

The world was agog with curiosity about how a regular non-celeb had achieved the impossible and got George Clooney to propose. His former girlfriends had sweetly smiled, appeared accommodating and non-demanding to no avail. The readers clamoured for information, which the press happily provided. Paparazzi followed the barrister around town as she quickly upped her style game.

Amal was born in February 1978, in Beirut to a businessman father, who belonged to a prominent Druze famil,y and a Sunni mother, who is a foreign editor of an Arab newspaper and a PR professional. Druze is a closed sect, the members of which may or may not be considered Muslim. This offshoot of the Ismaili sect has elements of Judaism, Christianity, but primarily of Islam. The Druze community is tightly knit due to constant persecution historically and no one can convert to the religion, you have to be born to it. The family moved to London in 1980 to get away from the Lebanese civil war.

Amal graduated in 2000 from St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University with a BA degree in Jurisprudence. An extremely bright and hard working girl, she received the Exhibition and Shrigley awards there. The following year, she enrolled in the Masters program at the New York University School of Law, where she was a clerk at the International Court of Justice. There, she received the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award for Excellence in Entertainment Law. She returned to London and was called to the bar (Bar of England & Wales, Inner Temple) and started working as a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, specialising in international law and human rights. Her client roster reads like a Who’s Who of international political players, such as WikiLeak founder Julian Assange, former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, imprisoned Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, the former Libyan intelligence chief Abdallah Al Senussi, the King of Bahrain, the State of Cambodia, Greece, and currently the former President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed. In 2013, Amal was appointed by the UN as an adviser to Special Envoy Kofi Annan on Syria and as counsel to the 2013 Drone Inquiry by into the use of drones in counter-terrorism operations. It was just after this that she met Hollywood crusader George Clooney and corrected his facts about the Syrian geopolitical situation.

In an interview, George said of why he fell in love with Amal, “She’s an amazing human being. And she’s caring. And she also happens to be one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. And she’s got a great sense of humor.”

But it was only after she became Amal Clooney that she was chosen by Barbara Walters, American TV’s foremost interviewer, as the Most Fascinating Person of 2014.

When she made her red carpet debut at the Celebrity Fight Night charity event in Florence as Clooney’s fiance, the tall, slim and elegant brunette wowed in a black strapless silk gown with dangly gold earrings. A tuxedoed Clooney got onto the stage and declared, “I met my lovely bride-to-be here in Italy, whom I will be marrying, in a couple of weeks, in Venice, of all places… I would just like to say to my bride-to-be, Amal, that I love you very much and I can’t wait to be your husband.”

They filed for their marriage license in London and the notice was put up, as stipulated by English law, on the Chelsea Town Hall public board. In September, the wedding of the year took place. The happy couple arrived by a speed boat named Amore in Venice waving to the waiting crowds and a throng of eager photographers. Amal was clad in cream Stella McCartney wide legged trousers, short sleeve top wide brimmed hat with black ribbons in her hat and at her waist, and carrying a beige envelope clutch, while George was dapper in a grey Armani suit and black tie as they proceeded to the Venice City Hall for a civil ceremony. On the 26th, they celebrated the last night of singlehood at their respective bachelor and bachelorette parties. His was a seven course meal at Ristorante de Ivo restaurant where copious amounts of Casamigos tequila, owned jointly by Clooney and Rande Gerber (Cindy Crawford’s husband) and vintage wine, were consumed by the groom and five of his closest friends. The £3000 bill was waived by the restaurant owner for his famous frequent customer.

At the rehearsal dinner held at the Belmont Cipriani Hotel (where the entire wedding party was staying at the cost of £40,000 per night), Amal wore a fiery red waterfall cut (high-low) silk Alexander McQueen dress designed by Sarah Burton (who also designed Kate, Duchess of Cambridge’s lace wedding gown) that put her toned legs on display. She had a matching scarlet pout, left her luxuriant hair loose with a bouncy blow dry and wore black pumps and big diamond earrings. He wore an open neck white shirt and navy suit.

The next day on 27th September, the wedding ceremony took place at the 7 star Aman Canal Grande Hotel, which Clooney had volunteered to pay for but her father refused his help. However, Clooney footed the bill for the rest of the weekend long affair, including travel expenses of all the guests. Amal wore a white French lace and tulle Oscar de la Renta off-the-shoulder wedding gown embroidered with diamante and pearls with a circular train, a wide neckline and a cathedral length veil, costing £10,000. It was one of the last dresses that the late de la Renta was personally involved in designing. She wore simple natural white pearl earrings with square cut diamond accents. For the reception, she wore another de la Renta, a beaded and tiered short gold flapper dress more fit for dancing. George wore a Giorgio Armani tux. A Tuscan feast was laid out for the A-lister guests, such as American Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour and actor Bill Murray. Ravioli with Lemon and Ricotta, and a Lemon and Blue Lobster Risotto comprised the first course. The second course was a Chianina Tuscan Beef, and dessert was a Chaud-Froid (hot-cold) with Zabaglione (custard). The Chocolate Wedding Cake was equally decadent with intricate gold leaf decorations.

The next morning the bride wore a Giambattista Valli cream heavy lace short dress with colourful floral appliqués, while her new husband wore another grey suit. The weekend festivities ended with the couple departing on Monday, her in a monochromatic striped dress carrying a hat box and him in yet another grey suit with open neck shirt. Clearly, the barrister chose her wedding wardrobe as skillfully as she fights her cases. It was her moment to shine with the world’s spotlight on her and shine she did! Though Amal’s father in his wedding speech asked the newly to quickly have children, the couple have not chosen to do so as yet. They have adopted a basset hound named Millie. The Clooney’s main residences are: a 7500 square foot house in LA, a $10 million charming and historic villa on Lake Como, a holiday home in Los Cabos, Mexico, and a Grade II-listed, 17th century manor Mill House on the Thames in Oxfordshire that he bought her for £10 million pounds. The estate is a 40 minute drive from her chambers.

Having kept up her busy law practice fighting high profile cases, in a recent televised interview, Amal spoke of using her newfound celebrity for a good cause, “If there’s more attention paid – for whatever reason – to that, then I think that’s good….I think there is a certain responsibility that comes with that. And you know, I think I’m exercising it in an appropriate manner by continuing to do this kind of work.” In addition, she is a visiting Professor at Columbia Law School. She has also partnered with the global initiative 100 Lives and founded the Amal Clooney Scholarship, whereby one female student from Lebanon is sent to the United World College Dilijan each year for a two-year International Baccalaureate program.

Meanwhile, George has been busy with upcoming movies releasing in 2016, such as the Coen Brother’s Hail Caeser, in which he plays a 1950s Hollywood fixer, and Jodie Foster directed thriller Money Monster opposite Julia Roberts.

The couple juggles their hectic careers and have made a deal with each other not to spend more than a week apart. “I’m a much happier person and we have a very happy life. We enjoy many of the same things and I very much enjoy the projects that she takes on because they have real consequence,” said Clooney describing their married life in glowing terms and how he is more fulfilled now than ever before: a recipe for marital success.

By Mahlia Lone

What makes a Bollywood power couple? It takes talent, good looks, connections, lineage, box office success, awards, and an ability for self promotion and marketing to become a star. When both partners possess these ingredients then the sum is greater than the parts, as in the case of Saif+Kareena=Saifeena. Let’s take a look at these savvy stars and what they want to achieve together

“If you are in love and you are happy, then that’s all that matters. I believe in the institution of marriage. It’s like a tag to cement the relationship for your friends, family and public. And it is a celebration of the fact that Saif and I are in love and we want to spend our life together,” said Kareena Kapoor Khan speaking about her marriage to fellow actor Saif Ali Khan.

Eleven years his junior, one of the most popular and highest paid Bollywood actresses at the time of their 2012 wedding, what made Kareena Kapoor go for Saif Ali Khan, a short squeaky-voiced supporting actor and divorced father of two children, albeit a nawab? Unlike other Indian actresses who are photogenic and less attractive in real life, apparently Kareena (named by her mother Babita after Leo Toltstoy’s epic novel Anna Karenina) is tall and extremely pretty in person, just as she appears on screen. She is also Bollywood royalty, theater and film actor Prithvi Raj Kapoor’s great granddaughter and film maker/studio owner/actor Raj Kapoor’s granddaughter. Nearly all the Kapoors are or have been working actors, including in her immediate family her father Randhir Kapoor, her mother Babita, who is of Anglo-Indian descent, and even her elder sister Karisma. In fact, her parents split up because Babita wanted her daughters to become actresses, but the more conservative Randhir did not think it suitable for the women of the family. Though many of the male members of the family married actresses, they were all made to retire from their careers and become housewives, which they willingly did.

Saif Ali Khan, named Sajid at birth, comes from an entirely different stock from his father’s side. He is the tenth Nawab of Pataudi, (honorary) titular head of 52 villages, who studied at prestigious Winchester College in England and grew up in Ibrahim Palace, 26 km from Gurgaon, a New Delhi suburb. Ibrahim Palace is a vast fairytale palace that looks straight out of Disney’s Aladdin and has recently been renovated and converted to a hotel. His father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the ninth Nawab, also known as Tiger Pataudi, captained the Indian national cricket team, as did his paternal grandfather the eighth Nawab Iftikhar Ali Hussain who played first class cricket for both the British and Indian cricket teams. Saif’s paternal grandmother Begum Sajida Sultan was the daughter of the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal, while his mother is former B’wood actress Sharmila Tagore (renamed Begum Ayesha Sultana after converting to Islam uon her marriage), herself the granddaughter of Rabrindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize winning Bengali poet. She currently serves as the head of the Indian censorship board. Saif’s youngest sister Soha Ali Khan and her husband Kunal Khemu are also actors, as was his first wife Amrita Singh, who hails from a Sikh landed family.

Amrita is not only 12 years older than her ex-husband, but physically taller and broader as well with a husky voice. Though the marriage lasted for some 13 years and produced two children Sara and Ibrahim, Saif cheated on her for a considerably portion of the time, finally leaving her for a Swiss model Rosa Catalano. Rosa herself contemplated moving to India and also becoming an actress at which point the by now divorced Saif broke up with her and started reinventing himself in an effort to revamp his image and career.

Saif Ali Khan is the tenth Nawab of Pataudi, (honorary) titular head of 52 villages, who studied at prestigious Winchester College in England and grew up in Ibrahim Palace, outside New Delhi, which has recently been renovated and converted to a hotel. His father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, also known as Tiger Pataudi, captained the Indian national cricket team, as did his paternal grandfather the eighth Nawab Iftikhar Ali Hussain, who played first class cricket for both the British and Indian national cricket teams. Saif’s paternal grandmother Begum Sajida Sultan was the daughter of the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal

Kareena, as younger sister of Karisma, a mildly successful lead heroine, had a highly anticipated film entry, though unluckily she opted out of a debut film with Hritihik Roshan’s Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (2000) that went on to be a big hit. Struggling to find her niche with initial box office duds, she finally had a massive hit with Karan Johar’s Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Ghum opposite Hritihik, with whom she reportedly also had an under the radar fling. Though the movie was a multi-starrer, Kareena gained a fan following after portraying an Indian version of Alicia Silverstone’s character in the hit Hollywood teen comedy Clueless. An intuitive and spontaneous actress, Kareena continued with fluff roles till she played the role of a prostitute in the film Chameli, for which she won a Filmfare Award. She started a relationship with newcomer Shahid Kapoor, a diminutive trained dancer, which lasted for three to four years and a mobile video of them French kissing went viral during this time. It was after their hit movie together Jab We Met that she broke up with him. Though she had starred with Saif Ali Khan in two movies up to this point, including the Othello inspired Omkara, they had not had many scenes together. To get over her breakup, Kareena decided to focus on exercise, weights and yoga (she can do 50 sun salutes at a time holding eacho position for 30 seconds), and diet regimen by becoming a vegetarian to get her body in tip top shape. Her size 0, 48 kg figure was then duly reported in the press and a noticeably trimmer Kareena appeared in tiny hot pants and bikini tops in the 2007 Yash Raj movie Tashaan, opposite a buffed up and goateed Saif Ali Khan. According to Kareena, it was during an outdoor shoot for this movie that she saw Saif lying bare-chested in just his jeans, sunning himself at the hotel pool that she checked him out and thought he was hot. However, according to what Shahid Kapoor alluded to in his interviews, there was some overlapping, during which time Kareena decided to dump the young actor for his older, vastly more eligible rival.

The phenomenon of Saifeena, as they were dubbed by the Indian press, was born. They announced their relationship at the Lakme Fashion Week that year.  A source reported to the press, “Bebo (Kareena’s childhood nickname) and Saif behave like teenagers in love. They constantly send each other lovey-dovey messages and even have photos of one another on their phones.”

The couple garnered much publicity that has translated into many lucrative endorsements and modeling contracts together as a couple. Kareena, who has not been averse to plastic surgery to fine tune her looks though she has never publicly accepted this, introduced her boyfriend to botox and collagen fillers to rejuvenate his middle aged looks. Saif, henceforth, started appearing in films creaseless and with a taut forehead and an expressionless face. The publicity also helped his career and he ventured into film production making moderately successful films. Not only did Kareena help him out by starring in some of these, like his 2012 movie Agent Vinod, but she has also said she helps him market his films. “Saif just doesn’t take himself seriously enough. After his performance in Love Aaj Kal (2009 movie produced by Saif’s production company Illuminati Films that he stars in opposite Deepika Padukone and that has been directed by Imtiaz Ali), I’m convinced Saif’s best time begins now. But he doesn’t know how to market himself….This is Saif’s best performance after Omkara. I’m so proud of him. Love Aaj Kal is as much my baby as Saif’s. I’m going to be completely involved in the publicity, marketing, everything. This is our first production and we’re going to make it rock.”Not content with just taking vacations together, Saif told Babita that he was committed to her daughter and wanted her to move in with him. “Kareena is my woman and we know that we want to spend the rest of our lives together.” Babita gave them her blessing and they started living together like a modern Indian couple.

   Actresses that Saif formerly had flings with, such as Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu (during the fliming of Race) and Yana Gupta, Kareena is openly hostile and bitchy to, calling Bipasha, a “kaali billi” (black cat) for her dusky complexion. She said she knows that Saif has sown his wild oats, but now he has become grounded and if he ever cheats on her she threatened, “I will slaughter him.”

But Saif proved his faithfulness to her and five years of dating later, they decided that their hectic careers allowed them a short time in which to tie the knot. “Of course, I want to be with her as much as I can,” Saif said in an interview. “My regret is we can’t be together more often. We are uncannily similar people and I’ve only now begun to understand why I need to be with her constantly. She complements me, as I hope I complement her. So of course, I try to be where she is.”

During this time, Kareena’s career went from strength to strength. She’s the only heroine who can boast of starring in four hits that have grossed over Rs.1 billion each and has starred in films with all the top Khan triumvirate: Salman, Aamir and Shah Rukh. The highest paid Indian actress in 2012 for Heroine, receiving Indian Rs. 80 million (PKR 127 m) and with 16 brand endorsements, Kareena stints herself no indulgence. In 2010, Kareena bought herself a seven-carat diamond solitaire. She said in an interview that the ring was bought based on the advice of an astrologer who said it would bring her stability and happiness in her life. She also owns a fleet of luxury cars including a Mercedes S class sedan, an SUV and a Lexus LX 470. Kareena never misses an opportunity to head to Europe to unwind with London and Swiss skiing destination Gstaad being her top favourite vacation spots. She believes that two actresses in the same league can never be best friends, so her pal is struggling actress Amrita Arora.  On October 27, 2011, Kareena’s wax statue was unveiled at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool in the UK. Quite the entrepreneur, Kareena also has a clothing brand and has co-written a few diet books.

At the age of thirty, Kareena became Mrs. Khan in a lavish wedding with five main functions spanning two cities. Unlike prior Pataudi Begums, she refused to covert from Hinduism to Islam or give up her lucrative film career. With his father already deceased, Saif did not demur and indulged his bride in all her wishes. The starry Mumbai functions, a Sangeet, a Mehndi and a Reception were hosted by Kareena’s parents. It was reported, “The Sangeet evening was marked with music, dance and masti. The terrace party was held at Kareena’s Bandra residence. Buddies Malaika Arora Khan, Amrita Arora, and Tusshar Kapoor shimmied to well-choreographed moves by Karan Johar. There was an array of dance performances to popular Bollywood numbers dedicated to the lovely couple. The terrace venue was covered to prevent media getting a snoop….Kareena in a pretty sari set the tone and note for the mehndi ceremony, where Saif looked dapper in a tuxedo. The mehndi ceremony was coupled with a private dinner for family and friends, which took place in Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The bride chose to wear ensembles made for her by her favourite fashion designer, Manisha Malhotra and especially created diamond and gem encrusted jewellery. A simple Nikkah and signing of the marriage registry was held at Saif’s residence in Mumbai. This was a personal affair to which they donned shalwar kameezes and waved to the press from the balcony. Kareena had refreshingly minimal makeup on. It was reported, “The after-marriage bash was a vibrant affair. Around 150 selected guests attended the celebration. B-town celebs like Shah Rukh Khan with wife Gauri, Sonam Kapoor with dad Anil Kapoor, Amrita Arora with husband Shakeel Ladak, Priety Zinta, Karan Johar, Tusshar Kapoor, and many more upped the starry quotient of the evening. Family members including Randhir Kapoor, Babita, Karisma, Rishi Kapoor with wife Neetu Singh and son Ranbir, Soha Ali Khan, along with Saif’s daughter Sara and son Ibrahim were seen in a joyous mood.”

“After marriage, love becomes bigger, better. There’s greater understanding and respect. Saif admires me for being a working woman. A partner should help you fly. Saif’s perfect!…I can’t breathe without love. It gives me energy, a feeling of belonging, the need to GO out and conquer the world,” said Kareena

Then, the wedding moved to New Delhi where Sharmila hosted a grand Dawat-e-Valima in true Nawabi style at the Ibrahim Palace. All the top politicians and remaining royal families of the land attended. The Pataudi relatives from Lahore flew in as well. Kareena wore traditional gold jewellery that complemented a gharara, replicated by ace Delhi fashion designer Ritu Kumar from a vintage one worn by Begum Sajida Sultan at her wedding to the eighth Nawab Pataudi. Then, the Begum passed it to her daughter in law Sharmila, who wore it at her own wedding. Saif wore a Benarasi brocade achkan that had been copied by menswear designer Raghavendra Rathore from achkans worn by Saif’s father Mansoor Ali Khan in his lifetime. Saif carried the ceremonial family sword and wore a traditional pagri on his head. Even the paans served at the valima were special crafted according to an age old recipe. Sharmila wanted to impress the Kapoors with the Pataudi family’s pedigree, royal traditions and aristocratic connections, which she did so, sparing no expense or effort. “Celebrities from the world of cricket, Bollywood and politics graced the Mughal-themed reception. The cream and gold décor with antique props, jasmine floral arrangements and traditional brass hanging diyas added a delicate spice and romance to the wedding ambiance,” it was reported. Against the glittery, B’wood wedding, the regal Delhi wedding festivities made quite an impact. No glitzy hotel or palatial bungalow could compete with the newly renovated splendor of the Old World and regal Ibrahim Palace. Upon attendance to their new step mother at the wedding were teenage Sara and Ibrahim. Saba and Soha Ali Khan, Saif’s younger sisters, also fittingly played prominent roles at the wedding.

The couple returned to their respective film sets after the wedding and it was a little before they could take off for their honeymoon.

Kareena has maintained that she will continue to act and may not have children till the age of 39. Kareena likes to cook for her husband, while he plays the guitar for his ladylove. She has also carefully cultivated a close relationship with his daughter Sara. Kareena said in an interview. “They are the most well brought up children. I always remember Sara standing up and doing adab (greeting). Both Sara and Ibrahim are like that. I am like a friend for them…. In fact, we’re like best friends. Saif refuses to come out with us. Sara’s my bar hopping partner. I enjoy my equation with her…. At times Sara and I chat over a glass of champagne. That’s the way Saif wanted it and that’s the way I wanted it. Whenever she wants to call me she does at time when Saif isn’t around and she doesn’t want to talk to him. She talks to me.’’

In another interview, Kareena said, “’After marriage, love becomes bigger, better. There’s greater understanding and respect. Saif admires me for being a working woman. A partner should help you fly. Saif’s perfect!’ She pointed out that she’s given a lot of time to the marriage, in fact to every relationship. ‘I can’t breathe without love. It gives me energy, a feeling of belonging, the need to go out and conquer the world,’ she stressed.”
“I understand people want to put our relationship under a microscope. They want to know about our relationship,” said Saif thoughtfully in an interview. “But there’s only so much that they can know or perceive. What Kareena and I feel for each other, only the two of us know.”

“Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink” Rishi Kapoor & Neetu Singh

A pragmatist knows that a love story does not end at the altar with a happily ever after. The loved up couple encounters many roadblocks, trials, fights, disagreements, heartbreak and testing times, along with the joy, love, jubilation, success and contentment they encounter along their life’s journey together. As long as the good moments outnumber the bad, all is well and they continue to be together. Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh (parents of heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor) had amazing on-screen chemistry in Bollywood films of the Seventies before they tied the knot and settled down to married life together. But along the way, due to career frustrations and the Kapoor family penchant for the good life, Rishi lost his way and nearly his wife as a result

The middle son of film maker, director and actor Raj Kapoor, Rishi, nicknamed Chintu by his older brother Randhir (father of Karisma and Kareena), started his acting career as a chubby schoolboy in Mera Naam Joker. Though considered an avant-garde movie at the time, the film bombed at the box office. Reeling from the financial loss and to relaunch his fair and handsome young son, Raj cast him as the male lead in Bobby (1973) opposite a nubile, mini skirt clad Dimple Kapadia. A rom-com with catchy songs, the movie was a tremendous success. The movie is about a teenage boyfriend/girlfriend from opposite side of the tracks, who defy their parents in their passionate love for each other and overcome all obstacles to be together at the end; a Seventies version of Romeo & Juliet with a happy ending and many masala (spicy) song and dance routines. What caught the audience’s imagination was the lead pair. They were refreshingly innocent-looking. Dimple, seemingly unaware of her sexy outfits, has a wide eyed innocent look in it that cannot be attributed to her acting, while Rishi is the chocolate boy hero, all spunk and excitable youthfulness. During the filming, the two became so close that Rishi asked Raj Kapoor if he could marry Dimple. Raj vociferously refused. Perhaps he thought his son was too young and still impressionable to tie the knot, but according to contemporary rumors, Dimple, who was raised in a tenement, could have been Raj’s love child with his mistress and love of his life film star Nargis (thus Rishi’s paternal half-sister), a farfetched story. Soon after, Dimple married the top star of that time Rajesh Khanna and left films at his behest. (They are the parents of Twinkle Khanna married to Akshay Kumar.) Rishi went on to become every teenage Indian girl’s crush in the Seventies.

During the filming of Bobby, the two leads became so close that Rishi asked Raj Kapoor if he could marry Dimple. Raj vociferously refused…. according to contemporary rumors, Dimple, who was raised in a tenement, could have been Raj’s love child with his mistress and love of his life film star Nargis (thus Rishi’s paternal half-sister), a farfetched story

In an interview for Afsana Ahmed of the Hindustan Times, Rishi said, “It wasn’t easy to be pitted against Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna (both Seventies action stars). But I did it and enjoyed that phase, especially the first 25 years of my stay at the top,” says the actor who appeared as the hero in nearly 100 romantic movies. “In the first 25 years of my career I sang songs, wore jerseys and romanced heroines in the valleys. And as was predictable in Hindi films, I got slotted into the quintessential chocolate boy image.”

Baby Sonia, as Neetu Singh was known as a child star, had been appearing in films since she was only 8 years old. With her mother financially dependent on her, Neetu was a pretty and voluptuous doe-eyed Sikh actress with waist length thick, long and lustrous hair. She played the part of the lively, ebullient, peppy girl in movies. Though she had met Rishi when she was only 14 and they became friendly, their first film together was Zehreela Insaan in 1974. Off-screen she was his confidante, the female friend that he confided in about his love woes with various girl friends and cry on her shoulder after his various breakups. She too must have had a crush on him since she gave him so much of her time and attention. Six years her senior, Rishi treated her in a fond yet off hand way; he would nonchalantly pull pranks on her, such as rubbing kajal (black eyeliner) on her face after she would finish getting dolled up by the makeup artist. Their on-screen chemistry was red hot with him jumping around excitedly and impishly and her looking at him with lovelorn eyes. The popular pair have appeared in a total of 12 films with each other. After the 1976 film Kabhi Kabhi, in which they played yet another young and in love couple, Rishi got so used to her company that when he left for an outdoor shooting stint in Europe for the film Barood, he missed her after only a couple of days. He said in an interview, “I remember I had an argument with my girlfriend at the time and I was very heartbroken. Trying to win her back, I had taken Neetu’s help in writing telegrams to her. As time passed, I began to realise that Neetu is the one for me and I began to miss her when I had gone to Europe for a shoot. Ironically, I sent her a telegram from Europe to Kashmir.” The telegram simply stated, “Yeh Sikhni badi yaad aati hai” (I’m missing this Sikh girl dreadfully). Overjoyed at his declaration of love, Neetu rushed to show it to Yash (famous filmmaker) and Pam Chopra.

Rishi said, “as time passed, I began to realise that Neetu is the one for me and I began to miss her when I had gone to Europe for a shoot….I sent her a telegram from Europe to Kashmir.” The telegram simply stated, “Yeh Sikhni badi yaad aati hai” (I’m missing this Sikh girl dreadfully). Overjoyed at his declaration of love, Neetu rushed to show it to Yash and Pam Chopra. Rishi and Neetu started dating, but he cautioned her candidly but honestly, “I will only date you, but never marry you” 

They started dating, but Rishi cautioned her candidly but honestly, “I will only date you, but never marry you.” With the optimism of youth and too smitten to care, Neetu took him at his word.

Her mother Rajee, however, was not happy. She wanted her daughter to focus on her career as the sole breadwinner of the family and not get a bad reputation. In an interview, Neetu recalled, “My mom was so protective that I was not allowed to even go for coffee with my friends. Even if someone looked at me, she would bash him up. She was really dominating and people would get scared of her. She would get upset if my husband flirted with me. She told me, ‘You should not have affairs. If you go from one person to the other, he will also leave you and then you would again have to go to yet another. Your name will be spoilt and it will remain like that.’ That stayed in my mind. So whatever ups and downs I went through with my husband, I did not want to leave him and wanted to always hold on.” Rajee made sure Neetu was always chaperoned; she would send Neetu’s first cousin with them on all their dates, who would sympathetically get dropped off along the way to give the couple some alone time. Rishi also put an 8:00 p.m. curfew on Neetu by which time she would be packed up on set and at home by 8:30 p.m. waiting by the landline for his phone call. He, on the other hand, continued to carry on with starlets on the side, which he would deny to her, and she would take him at his word.

Neetu’s ambitious mother pushed her daughter to wear revealing clothes on screen and do more risqué dances. Rishi’s friends reportedly joked to him that his girl friend was showing excessive cleavage on-screen. Rishi replied, “It only seemed so because of the way Neetu’s body was built, and even if her shirt went all the way to her chin, some cleavage would show. Besides, Neetu Singh was the one genuine virgin in Filmistan.”

Neetu said, “I was oblivious of my star status and would even sit on the floor talking to junior artistes. I was not pretentious. He (Rishi) would write letters when I went outdoors and have them delivered to me by all his friends who were my co-stars. I would be teased and be considered his property. We had been dating for five years. At 21, I had signed a lot of big movies and was at the peak of my career and had lost weight and that is when he got insecure. He would initially say, ‘I am going around with you, but will not get married to you.’ But then one day he asked me, ‘Don’t you want to get married?’ I said, ‘To whom?’ He said ‘What do you think I am?’ I agreed. (The two were formally engaged in a hush-hush ceremony during a Kapoor family wedding in Delhi with his sister’s ring.) I had settled my mom financially and bought her a house. She did my wedding in a grand way and the whole of India was upset that Rishi Kapoor was getting married.”

Neetu admitted in an interview to being aware of Rishi’s extramarital dalliances, but deciding to turn a blind eye, “Even when we were dating, he remained a total flirt and would pretend he did not have other affairs when he was caught and always denied it. I knew that. But I was too innocent and if he said ‘nahi hai’ (it’s isn’t so) I would believe him. He knew in his mind that I was a simple person and felt yeh mujhe sambhal legi (she will sort me out) and that he could mould and dominate over me”

The Kapoor khandan (family), as it’s known in Bollywood circles, is patriarchal in nature, so Neetu rushed to finish her films and give up her career in lieu of a domestic life. Her trousseau was extremely lavish and theirs was the Bollywood wedding of the year 1980. Neetu was resplendent in a bedazzled bridal outfit and diamonds. Champagne flowed freely and all the Who’s Who of Bombay were in attendance. The couple started out living with their in-laws in a joint family system. The marriage was blessed with a daughter later that year Ridhima and Ranbir, in 1982. Ridhima became a fashion designer after growing up and married an industrialist. Ranbir is a current Bollywood hearththrob and considered the versatile actor of his generation.

After his marriage, Rishi was rumored to have affairs with starlets half his age, such as the tragic Divya Bharti (who jumped off a building in consequence of a fight with another boyfriend) and even popular girl next door actress, Juhi Chawla. Neetu admitted in an interview to being aware of Rishi’s extramarital dalliances, but deciding to turn a blind eye, “Even when we were dating, he remained a total flirt and would pretend he did not have other affairs when he was caught and always denied it. I knew that. But I was too innocent and if he said ‘nahi hai’ (it’s isn’t so) I would believe him. He knew in his mind that I was a simple person and felt yeh mujhe sambhal legi (she will sort me out) and that he could mould and dominate me.”

Moreover, in the late 1990’s, Rishi’s career was at an all time low. In his late forties, with his family’s tendency to gain weight, he had a paunch and becoming a romantic lead was just not realistic. Frustrated, he took to the bottle, another family trait. It was rumored in Bollywood that he had become an alcoholic.

Neetu called the Police claiming that her husband would often get drunk and beat her up and that the frequency and intensity had increased….The next day, Neetu retracted her complaint. The domestic violence complaint was carried by the newspapers. It was even reported that Neetu moved out of the house and started a salon for a time

On November 1^st 1997, at 3:45 a.m. Bandra police station received a call from Neetu Singh calling from their bungalow at 27, Krishna Raj road on Pali Hill, claiming that her husband would often get drunk and beat her up and that the frequency and intensity had increased. When they arrived to the house, however, Rishi told them that his wife was soundly asleep. The next day, Neetu retracted her complaint. The domestic violence complaint was carried by the newspapers. It was even reported that Neetu moved out of the house and started a salon for a time.

Later talking about that phase of their marriage, Rishi said, “Every relationship goes through such turmoil, but eventually comes out of it, ours was no different. I was being very difficult then but Neetu absorbed all the shock I have given her really well and held on to me. In another interview with Karan Johar, he said, “It has always been Neetu who has made all the effort, I have always been a difficult man.” Talking to Afsana Ahmed he said, “Being short-tempered has been my weakness. But everyone has different sensibilities, thoughts, opinions and mood swings. So there ought to be fights when two people live under the same roof.  Hota hai yaar! (It happens). Both Neetu and I are very strong headed individuals and we fight every month. We don’t talk to each other for months, it takes a long time to patch up.”

Neetu too said on Koffee With Karan, “There always comes a phase in a couple’s life when there would be friction, disagreements. Rishi and I also went through that stage. It was just one of those problems, which only the husband and wife would understand. Fortunately, we were able to sort out our differences. Today, everything is forgotten.”

Ranbir said, “Sometimes the fights would get really bad. I would be sitting on the steps, my head between my knees, till five or six in the morning, waiting for them to stop. My parents had a very troubled marriage for a long time, and I was caught in the middle because I was there. Mom tried to make sure it didn’t affect us”

Equally honest is Ranbir while discussing his troubled childhood. In an interview, he said, “My parents were often at each other’s throats and the ugly scenes between them were deeply affecting their two kids. Sometimes the fights would get really bad. I would be sitting on the steps, my head between my knees, till five or six in the morning, waiting for them to stop. My parents had a very troubled marriage for a long time, and I was caught in the middle because I was there. Mom tried to make sure it didn’t affect us. She did that by being open about it, which was good. But let’s just say I didn’t grow up with any rose-tinted illusions about love. I learned the hard way how complicated a relationship between a man and woman could be.” Disturbed, embittered, and too embarrassed to share his problem with others, Ranbir went into a shell. “I just bottled everything up. There was a reservoir of emotions building up inside, desperately looking for an outlet,” he said. ‘Perhaps it’s all coming out in my films now.’” (Ranbir has chosen to do a wide range of roles.)

In the 2000s, Rishi moved on to do supporting, character roles and has even played villains. He is at a happier place in his life. He is proud of Ranbir’s success, stating, “Let me confess today that my chest swells when someone comes up to me and praises Ranbir. Success hit my head and I went crazy. And till I hit bad times, I didn’t realise what was happening. But when I look at Ranbir, I am amazed at the way he has handled his success. His discipline, modesty and down-to-earth values that he gets from his mother are very impressive. I had once told him to not let success go to his head and not let failure go to his heart. He has kept that in mind.”

In another interview to the Mumbai Mirror, Rishi talked about his strained relations with his son Ranbir, “I know I’ve screwed up my relationship with Ranbir even though my wife kept telling me about what I was doing. It’s now too late to change it; both of us will not be able to adjust to the change. We’re not friends; we don’t have a buddy-buddy relationship. It’s like there’s this glass wall, we can see each other, we can talk, but that’s it; we can’t reach out. That’s the only thing that makes me unhappy. That’s the way I was with my father also. Maybe I could have broken this…but then I feel we should maintain this father-son relationship. I can’t be on backslapping terms with my son. We have a drink together sometimes, sort out our issues. But he definitely has aankhon ki sharam, baap ki sharam (he is respectful). He never discusses his love life with me. He talks to his mother.

Neetu and I are proud parents. Ranbir has made us proud. But the best thing about him is he is understated. He is most unlike me. I was an absolute brat when I was his age. I simmered down later in my career. Ranbir has got his feet on the ground. That makes me happy.”

Neetu agreed that Ranbir and Rishi have different temperaments. “If Ranbir is north, my husband is south. They are of totally different nature. I don’t think Ranbir has even one thing that resembles my husband, except the voice.

However, all is not lost between father and son, Ranbir attributes his groundedness to his parents, who taught him the value of money, and not grow up with a starry sense of entitlement. At college in New York, he lived on a strict student budget and lived on McDonald’s. When he quit college and moved back to Mumbai to work as an assistant director, Rishi took away his car and he was forced to take a rickshaw to work and live within his salary, though he still lived at the family home. This taught the young actor to be self reliant and humble.

Speaking about their present and future plans, Rishi said, “Ab toh main pee bhi nahi raha hoon (I’m off alcohol). So my wife is happy. Yes, I’m in a terrible mood. I’m grouchy and at my worst when I’m not drinking. This is the worst period of my life. When I don’t drink, I get depressed. But I have to lose weight for Sudhir Mishra’s Mehrunissa with Amitabh Bachchan. I go for a walk, I do yoga and I’m on a diet…Ranbir doesn’t live with us anymore, which is also a very big setback to Neetu and me. (He has moved into an apartment overlooking the sea with girlfriend actress Katrina Kaif.) We’re building a new home where there will be a lot of place for him and his family. Till then, life goes on.”