Ragni (actress)

Ragni was born as Shamshad Begum in Gujranwala in 1924. Her mother died when Ragni was very young, and her father, Seth Diwan Parmanand, took her with him to Lahore, and they lived at a house on Fleming Road.^[2] In Lahore, filmmaker Roshan Lal Shorey was a neighbour of Ragni and noticed her and convinced Diwan to let Ragni act in films.^[2]

She started her acting career in a film launched by Roop K Shorey in the Punjabi film Dulla Bhatti (1940) alongside MD Kanwar. The film was a major success, and Ragni became a star overnight. Ragni went on to act in several Lahore- based productions in Hindi and Punjabi, like Sehti Murad (1941), Nishani (1942), Ravi Par (1942), Poonji (1943), Daasi (1944), and Kaise Kahun (1945).

In 1945, she left Lahore for Bombay and teamed up with A. R. Kardar.^[2] In 1946, she played the titular role in S. M. Yusuf's Nek Pervin. The film was successful at the box office and consolidated her position as a leading actress.^[2][5] Following the success of Nek Pervin, she was approached by Kardar to play Ruhi in Shahjehan. It is said that she was paid rupees one lakh for the film, making her the highest-paid actress of that time.^[2]

After Partition, Ragni chose to move to Pakistan but has also done a couple of Indian movies, which did not fare well.^[2]

In 1949, she worked in her first Punjabi film, Mundri (1949), with Ilyas Kashmiri. Then she worked in films Akaili, Nazrana, Baydari, Kundan, and Zanjeer. She also successfully performed a number of character roles in films such as Husn-o-Ishq, Gumnaam, Ghulam, Duniya Na Maane, Mirza Jat, and Aab-i-Hayat.^[6]

In 1958, she appeared as the antagonist 'Dilaram' in Anarkali with Noor Jehan and Shamim Ara. Later she worked in the film Noukar, which was a hit film. Ragni worked in a number of sixty films during her career that spanned some years.

Ragni married Mohammad Aslam in the early 1940s. The marriage did not last long, but she had two children from her first marriage, Saira and Abid.^[2] She again got married in Pakistan in 1947 to S. Gul, who produced and co-starred opposite her in Beqarar, and her son Abid died from cancer some years ago in the USA, and her daughter Saira got married and moved to Karachi.^[6]

After the death of her husband, Ragni did not marry again and lived in Gulberg, although she remained in contact with her daughter Saira.^[2] Ragni was deeply sad about the death of her son, and it affected her health.^[3] Ragni was admitted to Services Hospital on Tuesday morning.^[2] She died on 27 February because she was in an extremely serious condition while she was in the hospital at age 82 in 2007.^[2] She was laid to rest at Gulberg graveyard, Ali-Zeb Road, Lahore.^[7]