Begum Khurshid Mirza

Begum Khurshid Mirza (4 March 19188 February 1989), also known by her screen name as Renuka Devi, was a Pakistani television and film actress, who had been active from the pre-partition era to the 1980s.

Early life, family and education Begum Khurshid Mirza was born as Khurshid Jehan on 4 March 1918 in Aligarh to Sheikh Abdullah and Waheed Jahan Begum, the founders of Women's College, Aligarh. Her father was a practising lawyer and philanthropist who was keen to bring education and enlightenment to Muslim women. Her elder sister Rashid Jahan was a prominent Urdu language writer and one of the founding members of the Progressive Writers' Movement. Mirza, at the age of 17, married in 1935 a police officer Akbar Mirza and migrated to Pakistan in the wake of the partition of India in 1947.

Kiran Kahani (1973) which appeared in the Pakistani weekly magazine SUN as a nine-part serial, from August 1982 to April 1983. Later, the collection was compiled in 2005 as a book by her daughter, Lubna Kazim

A Woman of Substance: The Memoirs Of Begum Khurshid Mirza (an autobiography, edited by Lubna Kazim. Delhi: Zubaan 2005)

From 1960 onwards, she was involved in several literary activities, writing short stories for prestigious Urdu magazines Saqi published by Shahid Ahmad Dehlvi. Pride of Performance award by the President of Pakistan in 1984 for her contributions to films and television.

Death After her retirement, Mirza moved to Lahore, where she died on 8 February 1989. She was buried in Mian Mir graveyard in Lahore, Pakistan.