Suraiya Jamal Sheikh

Born: 15 June 1929

Died: 31 January 2004

She popularly known by the mononym Suraiya, was a popular actress and playback singer in India’s Hindi language films.
She was active from 1936 to 1963.
In a career spanning from 1936 to 1963, she acted in 67 films and sang 338 songs.
She was one of the greatest actresses of the Hindi Cinema and a leading lady in Hindi language films in the 1940s and 1950s.
She was also a renowned playback singer, who mostly sang for herself, starting from a song in Nai Duniya (1942) when she was only 12 years old.
She was known for her North Indian Muslim feudal style acting or adakari in many of her films she made her first appearance as a child artist with the film Madame Fashion (1936), directed by Jaddan Bai.
She made her acting debut with the film Taj Mahal in which she played the role of Mumtaz Mahal.
In her heydays, she was known as Malika-e-Husn (queen of beauty), Malika-e-Tarannum (queen of melody), and Malika-e-Adakari (queen of acting).
She was the highest-paid actress in the 1940s and 1950s and won several awards for her performances in Indian films.