Zarina Wahab

Zarina Wahab is an Indian actor and former model, who was critically acclaimed for starring roles, such as in Chit Chor and Gopal Krishna in the 1970s. Like actress Waheeda Rehman before her, Zarina came from a Muslim family in the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh. She was born in Vishakapatnam and is fluent in Telugu and Hindi. She was trained at FTII. Filmmaker Raj Kapoor was unimpressed with her look, when he met her at FTII. So Zarina worked on her appearance and attended film parties and events, and the industry people took notice and decided to cast her in films. She was usually cast as the middle-class, natural beauty. She had a major hit film in Basu Chatterjee's Chit Chor (1976). She also starred in Gharonda (1977). She earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for this role. She has acted in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam films, and has become fluent in Malayalam. Wahab met her husband actor Aditya Pancholi on Kalan Ka Tika. They married in 1986 and have a daughter, Sana and son Suraj. Her husband i...

Zarina Wahab is an Indian actor and former model, who was critically acclaimed for starring roles, such as in Chit Chor and Gopal Krishna in the 1970s. Like actress Waheeda Rehman before her, Zarina came from a Muslim family in the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh. She was born in Vishakapatnam and is fluent in Telugu and Hindi. She was trained at FTII. Filmmaker Raj Kapoor was unimpressed with her look, when he met her at FTII. So Zarina worked on her appearance and attended film parties and events, and the industry people took notice and decided to cast her in films. She was usually cast as the middle-class, natural beauty. She had a major hit film in Basu Chatterjee's Chit Chor (1976). She also starred in Gharonda (1977). She earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for this role. She has acted in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam films, and has become fluent in Malayalam. Wahab met her husband actor Aditya Pancholi on Kalan Ka Tika. They married in 1986 and have a daughter, Sana and son Suraj. Her husband is almost 5-years younger than she, and their turbulent marriage has been in the gossip columns, regarding her husband's temper and rumors of infidelity. Yet, their marriage persevered and they are still together. Wahab's roots in Andhra Pradesh remain strong, as she prefers Telugu films, and has encouraged daughter Sana to start out acting in a South Indian film, the way she had. Her daughter Sana Pancholi has tried her hand at acting in 2006. Wahab currently plays older roles in television serials. She is slated to appear in the 2009 release, My Name is Khan as the mother of Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan).

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