March 13, 2017

Current and Yesteryear Bollywood actors of Foreign Ancestry




Bollywood is home to some of the most beautiful women of the world. Bollywood beauties are known for their exceptional beauty which is both exquisite and exotic.
India is the most kaleidoscopic mosaic of races and cultures which brought with them a unique flavor to enrich its already rich heritage even more. This is true for Bollywood  as well, India’s Hindi Film Industry, the largest in the world.

Madhubala :

 Also Known as Venus of Bollywood . Her real name was Mumtaj Begum Dehalvi. She was born to parents of Afghani origin who settled in Delhi. Indians will always remember her as ‘The Anarkali’. Her beauty was very sublime and appeared very easy on eyes. Her lover affair with Dileep Kumar and failed marriage to Kishore Kumar made a lot of ripple in the film circles.


Nadira : 

Her Real name was Florence Ezekiel Nadira. She was born in a Baghdadi Jewish Family. She rose to fame with her hit movie of 1952 called ‘Aan’ in which she was paired against Dileep Kumar. She is best remembered for her role of an Anglo Indian mother in the 1975 hit ‘Julie’.



Mumtaj : 

Mumtaj was born to Iranian origin parents Abdul Saleem Askari and Shadi Habeeb Agha in Mumbai. She started as a child artist and went on to do action movies with wrestler Dara Singh. She was paired against many big actors of her time and was a very popular actress. She married at the age of 26 and left India to settle in London where she still lives. She is a cancer survivor and appeared in a documentary on Cancer some time back.


Helen: 

Helen Jairag or Helen Nimis Richardson or Helen Khan as she is called now was a very popular dancer of her time. Her fame rivaled the top actors of that time. She was born to an Anglo Indian father and Burmese mother. She came to India during the second World war and she covered most part of the journey on feet with her mother. During the course of this journey she lost many of her relatives. Her story is a story of triumph against odds. She usually played negative roles but was loved by her fans.



Celina Jaitley :

Former Miss India and a Miss Universe Finalist (year 2001) was born in Kabul when Afghanistan was more peaceful. Her mother is of Afghan origin and father is a Punjabi. She won the Miss India contest in 2001 and placed in Top 5 of Miss universe 2001. She is amongst the most beautiful actresses of Bollywood.


Lara Dutta :

 Miss Universe 2000 is best remembered for her answer that fetched maximum ever, a 9.9/10 in Miss Universe 2000 final. Her mother is of mixed ancestry (European) while father is a Punjabi. She won Miss India in 2000 with Priyanka Chopra and Dia as her runner ups. She also won Miss Intercontinental in 1998. She has acted in many successful movies which were usually multicast movies. She now heads Miss Diva, the pageant that selects India’s representatives to Miss Universe pageant.



Dia Mirza:


 Dia Mirza was born to a Bengali mother and a German father. Her parents separated soon after she was born and her mother married a Hyderabadi gentleman whose second name she adopted and hence became Dia Mirza. She was a runner up at Miss India 2000 and went on to win Miss Asia Pacific.