Artist Bio: Begum Akhtar

Original name: Akhtari Bai Faizabadi
Date of Birth: October 7, 1914
Date of Death: October 7, 1974
Place of Birth: Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Profession: Musician and actor
Genre: Ghazal, Dadar and Thumri.

Begum Akhtar was born to Mushtari Akhtar who was married to Asghar Hussain but got divorced soon. She was left with two daughters and one of them was Begum Akhtar. Begum Akhtar was seven only when she was noticed by a theatre artist Chandra bai, who encouraged her to get into a musical career. She received her musical training Ustad Imdad Khan and Ata Mohammad Khan. She made a trip to Calcutta and took her classical training from Mohammad Khan and Abdul Waheed Khan. Begum Akhtar made her first public appearance at the age of fifteen and her singing made many big music personalities to turn to make a turn back to her door. She was appreciated by the illustrious poetess Sarojini Naidu when she voiced in an event organised to gather funds for the Bihar Earthquake victims. She debut her first record with the famous Megaphone record company. She was an unmatched Ghazal, Thumari and dadra singer. Begum Akhtar was having appealing looks and this quality in her opened many doors for her acting career. She was raped by one of her fans and had a daughter after this incident. In the year 1945, she got married to Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi who restricted her from singing for a couple of years. But then again she made a came back and sang a dadra and a Ghazal at the Radio station in Lucknow. She had been a regular performer on the All India Radio and the maturity in her voice made a further improvement in her singing. Begum Akhtar during a concert in Ahmedabad, she lifted up the pitch of her voice did not find it working well. She was not feeling well the same day. She was taken to the hospital but she died on the same date when she was born. She received the Sangeet Natak academy award and Padma Shri. She was also honoured with the Padma Bhushan after she died. She was given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal. Some of her remarkable work include ‘Hamen yaad teri satane lagi’, ‘Rehne kaga hai dil me andher’, ‘Ishq mujhe aur kuch to yaad nahi’ and ‘Kalyug hai jabse aaya we’. She acted in the movies like ‘Jawaani ka nasha’, Anaarbala’, ‘Roop kumari’, Roti and lots more.