“Esther Victoria Abraham,” also known as Pramila, was born on Saturday, December 30, 1916 in Calcutta, British India (now Calcutta, India) (aged 90; at time of death). She studied at Calcutta Girls’ High School and then shifted to St James’ School due to the reasonable fee structure. She has a BA in Fine Arts from Cambridge University. Shortly after completing her studies, she began teaching in the Talmudic Torah Kindergarten for Boys.
Esther Victoria Abraham in her youth
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 5″
Hair color: dark brown
Eye Color: Black
family
Esther Victoria Abraham was born to an al-Baghdadi Jewish family who settled near the Indian Ocean and South Sea trading ports.
Parents and siblings
Esther was the daughter of Calcutta Jewish merchant Ruben Abraham and his second wife Matilda Isaac (a Jewish lady from Karachi). Esther had three half-siblings and six of her own brothers and sisters.
husband and children
Esther Victoria Abraham first married Maniklal Dangi at the age of seventeen. The couple had a son. However, their marriage lasted less than a year. In 1939, at the age of 22, she married a second time, to Syed Hassan Ali Zaidi, known as “Kumar”. The couple had three sons, Akbar, Asghar and Haider, and a daughter named Naqi. Haider is passionate about cinema and wrote the screenplay for the film Jodhaa Akbar (2008). Nachi is a model married to a Gujarati businessman. Later, she lived in India with her five children after her husband and his young family moved from Lucknow to Pakistan.
religion
Esther practiced Judaism.
Profession
Movie
At 17, Esther left her home in Calcutta and began working as a dancer with a Parsi touring troupe in Mumbai. Later, she played daring stunt roles in about 30 films, making her debut in the film “Bhikarin” (1935). She appeared in many popular films including Ulti Ganga (1942),
Esther’s film Ulti Ganga (1942)
Bijli (1939), Basant (1942), King of the Jungle (1959), Bahana (1960) and Bade Nawab Saheb (1944).
Poster for the movie Bade Nawab Saheb (1994)
Her last performance as an actress was in the 1964 film “Murad”. Later in 2006, Esther had a cameo role as a grandmother in the movie “Quest”.
Esther with Exploration Director Amol Palekar
1st Miss India
In 1947, 31-year-old Esther Victoria Abraham was crowned the inaugural Miss India beauty pageant by the fourth Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai. She was pregnant with her fifth child when she won the title. She said in an interview,
The title wasn’t bad – it didn’t mean much to me at the time. It only became important 20 years later. ”
After winning the title of Miss India, she became popular and appeared in many magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. She added,
Back then, it (Miss India pageant) was more of a popular face contest, because I was on the cover of most magazines at the time, so I was chosen. At that time, the rules and regulations had not yet been formalized. ”
Esther Victoria Abraham
Producer
In 1942, Esher and her husband Zaidi founded a production company called Silver Productions. She began raising funds for her own films and produced 16 films under the Silver Productions banner. She was the first successful female filmmaker. She travels frequently to promote her films.
Movie “Naseeb” poster
dispute
Esther accused of being a Pakistani spy during visit to Pakistan
Esther Victoria Abraham was imprisoned by then Prime Minister Morarji Desai as a Pakistani spy for her regular visits to Pakistan. But it turned out that she had been on a business trip to promote the movie.
awards
- Pramila won the inaugural Miss India beauty pageant in 1947.
net worth
Her net worth is $3 million.
die
On August 6, 2006, 90-year-old Esther Victoria Abraham breathed her last in Mumbai.
Facts / Trivia
- Esther excelled both academically and physically. Her main sport is hockey, for which she has won many awards.
- Twenty years after winning Miss India, Esther’s daughter Naki won the same title in 1967, thus becoming the first mother-daughter duo.
- Esther converted to Islam after her second marriage to Zaidi and changed her name to “Shabnam Begum Ali”.
- Her picture was painted on the wall of the Israeli embassy in Delhi to deepen the unique cultural ties between India and Israel.
Photos taken by Esther in Delhi
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education