Zubeida Begum

Zubeida Begum was known for being an Indian actress, but rather tragic at that. Her father was Kasembhai Mehta, who was a business person and her mother was Faiza Bai, who was a singer by profession. She was a very beautiful girl, with fairly sharp features. When she confessed her aspiration to become an actress, her father became infuriated and arranged her marriage with a man. She has a son from this marriage named Khalid Mohamed. It was, however, a very unhappy marriage that broke after the partition of India.

She then developed a passionate love for Jodhpur’s Maharaja Hanwant Singh. Maharaja’s family strongly opposed the communion of this couple in love mostly because she was a Muslim, an actress and a divorcee. Also, because Hanwant was already married at that time. These disapprovals, however, didn’t stop them from tying the knot. To marry Maharaja Zubeida had to convert herself according to Brewer's Arya Samaj and named herself Vidya Rani.

They welcomed a son named Rao Raja Hukum Singh also known as Tutu on 2nd of August 1951. After the couple had died, Tutu was taken care of by Maharaja’s first wife. He was found beheaded in the streets of Jodhpur later in his life.

Zubeida and Hanwant went for a ride in Maharaja’s airplane, which was piloted by the Maharaja himself. They died in an air crash which is believed to be because of his reckless piloting skills. This incident betided on 26th of January 1951 at Godwar, Rajasthan. Khalid Mohamed is now a famous film critic, and he authored the screenplay for the movie Zubeida, which came out in the year 2001. It is believed that the movie was based on his mother’s story, and Karishma Kapoor was seen in the lead essaying the role of Zubeida along with other actors like Manoj Bajpayee.

Zubeida Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)