Veteran actress Firdous Begum breathes her last

Veteran film actress Firdous Begum aka Heer of Lollywood suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away in Lahore on Wednesday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

She suffered brain hemorrhage on Monday and admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Doctors Hospital in Lahore and after battling it for two days, the famous actress of her era and a veteran of over 150 films passed away. 

She left behind a son and two daughters to mourn her death.

Firdous Begum, who played the epic role of Heer in the famous Lollywood film, had remained a top actress in her era, the TV channel reported. Real name Parveen, Firdous was introduced by Nakshab in Fanoos (1963) as a supporting actress, while the main leads were played by Komal and Salam Peerzada. 

The film was about a haunted Haveli, where a dancer is seen performing her classical dances, and making occasional appearances at the old gate of the palatial home of Nawab, who had died long ago.

However, the film flopped due to some vital technical flaws in the film, according to cineplot.com. When Firdous started her career, she didn’t enjoy immediate success and most of her earlier films flopped including Khandaan, Malang, Lai Laag and Aurat. 

With the success of the Punjabi film Malangi in 1965, she was finally accepted by the audiences. One of the songs from this film “Mahi vay sanoun bhul na javein” sung by Noor Jehan and picturized on Firdous was one of the main reasons for the success of this film. The acceptance turned into adulation as her pairing with the Punjabi superstar Akmal clicked in a huge way and two started scoring one jubilee hit after another (Akbara, Chacha Jee etc). 

Soon Akmal and Firdous were having a torrid love affair (many people insist that they had married). Akmal died suddenly in 1967, and insiders in the industry claim that there was more to his death than just death by overdose or liver failure. Insiders claim that it was Firdous’ disgruntled brothers who were responsible for poisoning Akmal – a star who is still talked about as King of the 60’s. 

Despite the loss of Akmal, Firdous soldiered on relentlessly and featured in many hit films with the top Punjabi actors of that time including Habib, Sudhir, Yusuf Khan and the man who would eventually play a major part in her life – Ejaz Durrani. Producer Masood Parvez bought Firdous and Ejaz together for the folk tale of Mirza Jat in 1967 which became a raging success.

Then Masood Parvez hit the jackpot in 1970 casting the two for the legend of Heer Ranjha. 

The film, its songs and its stars became a rage and is still considered to be among the finest films ever to have come out of Lollywood and certainly the best ever Punjabi film. 

Firdous left the film industry in 1976 and joined it again after 8 years in 1984 as an unsuccessful character actress in films including Yeh kaisey hua (1984), Hitler (1986).