Husn Bano

Husn Banu (1919 – 1977) was a Bollywood actress famous as a stunt actress after "Hanterwali Nadia", and later worked as a supporting actress in films from the 1930s to the 1970s. She was born in 1919 in Singapore.

Early life
Husn Banu was born as Roshan Ara on 8 February, 1919, in Singapore. She was the daughter of actress Sharifa Bai (1930s) and the aunt of actress Nazima. She was admitted to a high school in Mumbai and passed 12th standard from there. She was fluent in English, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi. She was also proficient in singing and dancing.

Career
Like her mother, Husn Banu started her career in Calcutta. She began her career under the direction of Nitin Bose in New Theatre's film Daku Mansoor with actresses Umasashi and K.L. Saigal in lead role in 1934. The cast of the film included: K. L. Saigal, Uma Shashi, Prithviraj Kapoor, Husnbanu, Pahari Sanyal and Nemo. Daku Mansoor was Banu's debut film. Her mother, Shareefa, was not happy with the payments of New Theatre and brought her to Bombay where Husn Banu started getting roles in Wadia films. However, only C grade stunt action films were offered to her.

After 1940, she successfully gained roles in two social films made by Bharat Laxmi films. In 1941, she acted in two films from Bhavnani productions and National studios. Thereafter she gained only small or side roles.

In 1941, Husn Banu was selected for a film named Dhandora opposite Noor Mohammad Charlie in the main role.

The movie named Jawani (1942) is her career's best film as an actress. She sang in Prem Nagar (1940) which was Naushad's debut film as a music director. Husn Bano was one of the first actresses to whom famous singer Noor Jehan (who was later gone to Pakistan after independence) lent her voice in the film Dost in 1944.

She worked in films in both lead and character roles until her death in 1977. Her last film was Akhari Sajda.

Husn Bano acted in about 53 films and sang 44 songs across16 films in her lifetime.

Personal life
She married Wadia's director Aspi Irani with whom she had a longtime affair. She built a big house named after her mother Shareefa, ‘Shareefa Manzil’ in Dadar, Bombay.

On the morning of 23 November, 1986, her husband Aspi Irani left home for work and disappeared. He was declared as a “Missing Person” by the police and never returned.

Husn Banu was considered to be so beautiful and glamorous that she was featured in a Lux Soap advertisement in the early 1940s.