Zohra Segal (1912-2014)

Tributes have poured in for celebrated Indian actress Zohra Sehgal who died in New Delhi on July 10th, aged 102. She had been ill for several days and suffered a heart attack in a hospital in the capital..

In a career spanning more than seven decades, Zohra Sehgal entertained millions through her performances in films and on stage.

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Close-Up by Zohra Segal

Zohra Sehgal was born in 1912 in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

In 1930 she struck out and went to Germany to study modern dance at Mary Wigman’s Dance School in Dresden. In 1933 she returned to India, and in 1935 joined Uday Shankar’s famed dance academy in Almora, together with fellow dancer Kameshwar, whom she married in 1942. On to Lahore and the Zoresh Dance Institute and then her big move into acting: Prithvi Theatres, the Old Vic, the British Drama League, BBC television, The Jewel in the Crown, Toba Tek Singh, Bhaji on the Beach

Among the many honours and awards that have been conferred on Zohra Segal are the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1963); the Norman Beaton Award for significant contribution to the development of multicultural film and television drama in the United Kingdom (1996); the Padma Shri (1998); the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement (2004); and the Padma Vibhushan (2010).

Her autobiography, Close-Up: Memoirs of a Life on Stage and Screen, is available from Shalimar. Details here.

 

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