Biography

Shamim Ara is a renowned film actress, film producer and film director of Pakistan. She was born in British India at Aligarh in 1938. Her father's name was Syed Ali Ahmad and her maternal grandmother's name was Iqbal Begum who played a very active role in developing Shamim Ara's film career in Pakistan after Shamim Ara's mother's death at an early age. The family encouraged her to become a professional dancer in her childhood. Then her family visited Karachi, Pakistan in 1956 and Shamim Ara ran into a famous Pakistani film director Najam Naqvi there who was looking for new talent for his upcoming new movie Kunwari Bewa (1956) in Karachi.