Saira Banu turns 69

Zee Media Bureau/ Aparna Mudi

Mumbai: The beautiful Saira Banu celebrates her 69th birthday today. Married to veteran actor Dilip Kumar, Saira has had a prolific career in the 60s and 70s and is knowm as one of the most beautiful actors of her time. She was born to actress Naseem Banu, who practically tailor bred Saira to step into her shoes as a beauty queen. The ‘Padosan’ star spent quite some time in London to complete her studies and joined Hindi cinema at 16. ‘Junglee’, her first movie was with the then youth icon Shammi Kapoor. It also gained her a nomination at Filmfare in the Best Actress category. After ‘Junglee’ Saira starred in movies opposite the likes of Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar, Biswajit and Joy Mukherjee; but her position as a superstar was only established after the classic comedy ‘Padosan’. She married Dilip Kumar at 22. While Dilip Sahab was much older to her, Banu reportedly dreamt of marrying the superstar! Her petite light hearted portrayal in many of the movies is a mirror to her own bubbly self. She did not have a very long career, albeit one that made sure her beauty and glamour stays with us even today! Happy Birthday Saira Ji.