Begum Para was a yester years actress. She had an attractive figure and a cute face. She wore masculine attires. Her well-shaped nose and a mole on her chin were easily noticable. On X’mas day of 1926, she was born in a Punjabi family, and was one of the ten siblings. Her father was a sessions judge. She spent her childhood at Jhelum. Her schooling was at Aligarh and Delhi. She came to Mumbai for her college education at her sister-in-law’s, Pratima Gupta’s place but her life look a turn here. In pre-independence day India, Pratima was a well-known actress. She had acted in Kunwara Baap of Kishor Shahu and Namastey of Kardar. Begum Para was also fond of acting. She held the apron strings of her sister-in-law to enter the film industry. She debuted in Chand (1944 ) of Prabhat. The music duo Hansalal-Bhagatlal also debuted in this movi. Chand celebrated a silver jubilee. Pratima later took to direction and directed Begum Para in Chhamiya ( 1945 ). It was based on Pygmalion of George Bernard Shaw. She was a small-time con woman in the first half, and a mod woman in the second half. Her conquettish acting was very well received. Later, Begum Para acted in Sohni Mohiwal ( 1946 ), Mehandi ( 1947 ), Nilkamal ( 1947 ), Shahnaaz ( 1948 ), Suhag Raat ( 1948 ). Mehandi was a Muslim-Social story. Begum Para was a companion of Nargis in this movie. She erred in accepting character roles in Nilkamal and Suhag Raat. She was then stereotyped. She acted in Shalimar ( 1946 ) as Mumtaz Mahal. The movie was not released for 8 years. It was a flop when it was ultimately released. Then came the Partition of India. Some of her movies like Zanzeer, Suhagi never saw the light of the day. Pagley produced and directed by Pratima Das Gupta was released in 1951 at the then Kamal theatre, now renamed as Alankar. She also acted with Ajit in Meherbani. She then started to act in B-Grade movies like Dada, Ustad Pedro and Dara. In theses movies, her co-star was Sheikh Mukhtar. Ustad Pedro has music by C. Ramachandra. Dara’s music was composed by Mohammed Shafi. Begum Para’s last two movies were noticeable — Pehli Jhalak where she had a cameo role and Budhapa Abhi Kuch Door Hai. She acted as a refree in a wrestling ring in this movie. In Naya Ghar she was a friend of the herion, Gita Bali.

She was a good sportsperson apart from being an actor. She was good at basket ball, base ball and badminton. She was fond of reading. Her favourite authors were Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw. She was married to Nasir Khan, half brother of Dilip Kumar. Nasir died all of a sudden. She had to take care of the kids single-handedly. She wanted someone from the family to enter the film industry. Ayub Khan ultimately got a role in Mashuk. She was very happy then, and was present at the Muhurat shot. Even Dilip Kumar came to bless Ayub. She was not seen for 18 long years thereafter. She acted in Saawariya at the instance of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose father always told young Bhansali about Begum Para, a beautiful actor par excellence. She expired in December 2008.