Nayyar Sultana

Nayyar Sultana was born Tayyaba Bano in Aligarh (British India) on 4 March 1932 (as per Pakmag website) to a Muslim family.^[4] She had her education in Women's College, Aligarh.^[5] Her family migrated to Karachi, after the independence of Pakistan in 1954.

Sultana's parents were related to actress Shamim Bano, the wife of famous Pakistani film producer and director Anwar Kamal Pasha, who cast her in his directorial Qatil in 1955 in a supporting role with the screen name Nazli, marking her acting debut.^[4][6] Later the same year, she landed the second lead in Humayun Mirza’s Intikhab.^[4] Thereafter, she appeared with the screen name of Nayyar Sultana. She came into prominence in 1957 with Jaffar Malik's Saat Lakh, where she portrayed a tawaif opposite Santosh Kumar, and earned a Nigar Award for best supporting actress for her performance.^[4][7] S. M. Yusuf's Saheli in 1960 proved her greatest success till that point. The film celebrated its golden jubilee on the box office and Sultana's portrayal of a loving wife and a selfless friend earned her another Nigar Award for Best Actress.^[1][8] In 1962, she played a newlywed bride who elopes soon after her marriage in Khawaja Khurshid Anwar's Ghunghat. A reviewer from the Outlook found her performance as "indifferent but tolerable".^[9] She played the titular role in younger brother-in-law S. Suleman's directed Baaji (1963) opposite husband Darpan and earned praise for the portrayal of a young frustrated widow. While reviewing Baaji (1963), Herald called her performance "the strongest element of the film".^[1][4][10]

She briefly left the industry after her marriage with Darpan. With her portrayal of a blind country girl in Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, released in 1968, she made a comeback to the films,^[11] but it couldn't push her career further as most of her films at that time like Meri Bhabhi (1969), Hamjoli (1970) and Azmat (1973) were not commercially successful at the box office.^[4]

In the 1970s, she moved to performing character roles in S. Suleman's Abhi To Main Jawan Hoon and two films by Hassan Tariq, Mazi Haal Mustaqbil and Seeta Maryam Margaret.^[4] These were her last critically acclaimed films before she gradually faded away from the screen. After the death of her husband Darpan in 1980, Sultana appeared in a handful of films and managed his recruiting agency till her own death a decade later. Sultana had worked in over 225 films during her 37-year film career and received a number of awards. She was known for performing tragic roles.^[4]

She married Darpan, her co-star and one of the foremost romantic heroes in Pakistani film industry, at the pinnacle of her movie career and had two sons Qaisar and Ali. Darpan's elder brother Santosh Kumar was also an actor, and another brother, S. Suleman, was a film director.

Sultana owned a travel agency called "Darpan International".^[12]

Nayyar Sultana died of cancer on 27 October 1992 at Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.^[4][2][1]

Through her on-screen portrayals, Sultana contributed to the development of profound and prudent women characters in Pakistani cinema during the 1960s.^[13]

• List of Pakistani actresses