Esther Victoria Abraham, better known by her stage name Pramila, was an model, actress and first woman film producer in the Hindi film industry. She is also well known for winning the first Miss India pageant in 1947.
Esther Victoria Abraham was born in 30th December 1916 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to a Baghdadi Jewish family. She was the daughter of Reuben Abraham, a Jewish businessman from Calcutta (now Kolkata) , by his second wife Matilda Isaac, a Jewish lady from Karachi. Pramila had three older half-siblings from her father’s first marriage to a certain Leah, and six (or five) siblings from her own parents’ marriage.
Esther Victoria Abraham was married twice. At the age of seventeen, she married Maniklal Dangi, a Marwadi gentleman. The marriage lasted less than one year, but it produced a son. In 1939, aged 22, Esther Victoria Abraham married again, becoming the second wife of her second husband. This was the small-time actor Syed Hasan Ali Zaidi, a practicing Shia Muslim whose stage name was “Kumar.” Among Zaidi’s more noticeable roles was that of the sculptor in Mughal-e-Azam. Esther Victoria Abraham had to abandon Judaism and convert to Islam in order to marry Zaidi, and this happened when anti-semitism was at its height in Europe. Pramila and Zaidi had four children together. In 1963, shortly after the release of Mughal-i-Azam, Zaidi chose to leave Pramila and her children and move to Pakistan. Esther Victoria Abraham remained in India, where she acted in some more films, and also produced a few films.
Esther Victoria Abraham’s youngest son, Haidar Ali, has pursued a career in films and television. He acted in the TV serial Nukkad and more recently, the song Khwaja Mere Khwaja in the film Jodhaa Akbar (2008) was picturized with him playing the main singer.Esther Victoria Abraham’s daughter Naqi Jahan was crowned Eve’s Weekly Miss India in 1967, making them the only mother-daughter pair to have won the Miss India title. Naqi Jehan also represented India at the Queen of the Pacific Quest beauty pageant in Australia.
Career
Esther Victoria Abraham was the winner of the first Miss India pageant, in 1947 and at the age of 31. Her first job in the entertainment industry was as a dancer for a Parsi theatre company, dancing during the 15 minutes pause while the reel projector was changed. Esther Victoria Abraham acted as a fearless stunt star in 30 films, including Ulti Ganga, Bijli, Basant (film) and Jungle King. She also became the first major woman film producer in India, with 16 films under her banner Silver Productions. Morarji Desai, the then Chief Minister of Bombay, had her were arrested because she was suspected of spying for Pakistan, due to her constant travels to that country. However, it was later proven that she travelled to promote her films.
Besides her career in film, she was also a graduate of the University of Cambridge, and became a teacher. She also designed her own film costumes and jewelry.
Esther Victoria Abraham, better known as Pramila, died on 6 August 2006 aged nearly 90.Agency
