Florence Ezekiel Nadira (5 December 1932 – 9 February 2006), commonly known as Nadira, was an actress in Indian cinema. She is best remembered for her performance in films in the 1950s and 1960s such as Shree 420 (1955), Pakeezah (1972) and Julie (1975), which won her Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. Early life Nadira…
Pearl Padamsee (1931–2000) was an Indian theatre personality as a stage actress, director and producer of English language theatre in Mumbai active in 1950s–1990s. She also acted a few Hindi and English language films. She performed in at least ten films including Khatta Meetha, Junoon (1978 film), Baaton Baaton Mein, Kama Sutra: A Tale of…
Florence Ezekiel Nadira (5 December 1932 – 9 February 2006), commonly known as Nadira, was an actress in Indian cinema. She is best remembered for her performance in films in the 1950s and 1960s such as Shree 420 (1955), Pakeezah (1972) and Julie (1975), which won her Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. Early life Nadira…
David Abraham Cheulkar (1909 – 28 December 1981), popularly known as David, was a Jewish-Indian Hindi film actor and a member of Mumbai’s Marathi speaking Bene Israel community. In a career spanning four decades, he played mostly character roles, starting with 1941 film Naya Sansar, and went on to act in over 110 films, including…
A prize-winning actress (for some reason, the word ‘award’ wasn’t as much in vogue then), she was a triple M A, plus she did her Ph.D. after twenty years of marriage and two children. The first MA was in Sociology from the University of Mumbai, the second was a Diploma in Social Service Administration from…
It gives me great pleasure and a sense of Jewish contribution to Indian cinema achievements when I read about Ms. Pramila, Born Esther Victoria Abraham ,the first Miss India 1947. She passed away recently at the ripe old age of 90 years. Bollywood said goodbye on August 6th 2006 to the first ever Miss India, Pramila (born Esther Abraham). Crowned in…
Ruby Myers (1907 – 10 October 1983), better known by her stage name Sulochana, was an Indian silent film star of Jewish ancestry, hailing from the community of Baghdadi Jews in India. In her heyday she was one of the highest paid actresses of her time, when she was paired with Dinshaw Billimoria in Imperial…
The Jewesses of Bollywood were small, but they had a lot of power. Bollywood, which is a term used to describe the Indian film industry, makes more than a thousand movies a year that are seen by 3 billion people around the world. Many people who see this art don’t know that Jewish women were…