Mehtab (actress)

Mehtab
Screen shot from Jhansi Ki Rani
Born	Najma Khan (1918-04-28)April 28, 1918 Sachin, Gujarat, India
Died	April 10, 1997(1997-04-10) (aged 78) Mumbai, Maharashtra
Resting place	Bada Qabrastan, Marine Lines, Mumbai
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1928–1969
Spouse(s)	Ashraf Khan (divorced) Sohrab Modi 1946-1984 (his death)
Children	2 Sons

Mehtab (1918–1997) was a popular Indian actress of Hindi/Urdu films who worked from 1928-1969. She was born in Sachin, Gujarat, to a Muslim family and named Najma. Her father, Nawab Sidi Ibrahim Mohammad Yakut Khan III, was the Nawab of Sachin, near Surat in the state of Gujarat. Starting her career in the late 1920s with small roles in films like Second Wife (1928), Indira B. A. (1929), and Jayant (1929) she went on to do character roles before acting in the lead opposite Ashraf Khan in Veer Kunal (1932). After almost a decade of doing mainly action-oriented roles, she came into prominence with the Kidar Sharma directed Chitralekha (1941) due to her bathing scene in the film.

She married her early co-star Ashraf Khan with whom she had a son. They divorced later and she married Sohrab Modi in 1946. Modi cast her in the historical drama Jhansi Ki Rani (1953), which in spite of having spectacular scenes and lavish sets was a disaster. She stopped acting in films following 1953 except to act in her last role as a character artist in Modi's Samay Bada Balwan (1969). She died in Mumbai on 10 April 1997.

Mehtab acted in her early feature film Kamaal-e-Shamsheer (1930) with W. M. Khan, which was produced by her mother under Excelsior film company. Her other films at this time include Hamara Hindustan (1930) a silent film which starred Ruby Myers, Jal Merchant and Mazhar Khan. She went on to act in several films mainly in action roles produced by the Sharda Film Company under different directors. Finally in 1932, she acted under the banner of Indian Art Productions as the main female lead in Veer Kunal opposite Ashraf Khan, an actor she was to marry and then divorce. She continued to work under different banners including Chandulal Shah for Ranjit Movietone in Bhola Shika (1933) directed by Jayant Desai with E. Billimoria as hero, and Ranchandi directed by Babubhai Jani opposite Navin Chandra. She also acted in a couple of films directed by Jaddanbai like Moti Ka Haar and Jeevan Swapna, both in 1937. However, in spite of working for several banners, none of her films fared well at the box-office.