A young Zohra dancing

Interviewed by Sarah Dadswell on 22 July 2006.

Interview edited by Rebecca Savory Fuller.

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The late actress Zohra Sehgal was one of the leading figures in Indian film and theatre. She was born in 1912, in Uttar Pradesh, India.  Zohra began her extensive performance career as a dancer in Uday Shankar’s troupe, touring internationally to Japan, USA and Europe, including performing in Dartington, during the 1930s.  In 1945 she began to work as an actress, joining the Prithvi Theatre in Bombay under Prithviraj Kapoor.  Following the death of her husband, Zohra moved to Delhi in 1959 where she became director of the Natya Academy.  She then moved to London in 1962, where she lived and worked until the late 1980s.  In the 1990s and 2000s Zohra continued working as an actress in India and the UK, including roles in films such as Dil Se.. and Bend it like Beckham.  She died in New Delhi on 10 July 2014, at the age of 102.