Zeba Bakhtiar (Urdu: زيبا بختيار; born 5 November 1962[1]) is a Pakistani film/TV actress and a television director. She is known for her TV drama Anarkali (1988), the Bollywood romantic drama Henna (1991), and the Lollywood movie, Sargam (1995). She produced and directed a movie Babu in 2001. Zeba won the best actress Nigar Award for the movie Sargam in 1995.
Zeba is the daughter of Yahya Bakhtiar, a lawyer, politician and pre-independence Muslim League activist who served as the Attorney General of Pakistan, and also played a key role in framing Pakistan's current constitution.[2][3] Her father belonged to Quetta,[2] while her mother Eva Bakhtiar was an English woman born to Hungarian parents.[4][3] Her father died in 2003,[2] and her mother died in 2011.[5] Her parents met in the UK in the early 1940s and married, with her mother eventually settling in Pakistan in 1949 after graduating from the University College London.[4][5] Zeba has two brothers, Salim and Karim, who are both doctors, and a sister, Saira.[2] She was raised in Quetta,[5] and moved to Karachi later.[2]
Zeba made her television debut with a Pakistan Television drama, Anarkali in 1988. Her melancholic romantic role in Anarkali was widely appreciated. Then, she signed a Bollywood movie Henna in 1991 under the direction of Randhir Kapoor. Henna made Zeba a household name in the subcontinent. Later, she worked in more Bollywood movies like Mohabbat Ki Arzoo (1994), Stuntman (1994), Jai Vikraanta (1995), and Muqadama (1996). But her career in Bollywood didn't make any progress after Henna. Then she came back to Pakistan and worked in Syed Noor directed film Sargam (1995). Her other Lollywood movies include Chief Sahib (1996), Qaid (1996), and Musalman (2001). She produced and directed movie Babu in 2001, and produced a movie Mission 021 in 2014.
Apart from big screen, Zeba also appeared in some popular TV dramas like Tansan, Laag, and Pehli see mohabbat.[6][7]
Zeba has been married 4 times. Her first husband was Salman Valliani whom she married in the year 1985.[8] She married to Indian actor Jaaved Jafferi In 1989 and got divorce after one year. She came in the limelight because of her marriage to singer and music composer Adnan Sami. Zeba and Adnan got divorced in 1997. They have a son named Azaan Sami Khan[9]
^ abInterview given to Aamna Haider Isani (Jul-2023), published on YouTube (Zeba Bakhtiar On Life Survival Hacks I Six Pack at 60 I How To Overcome Depression I AHI).
^ ab"'My hero': Zeba Bakhtiar shares a memorable picture". ARY News. 19 February 2020. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2020. Her father Yahya Bakhtiar was a lawyer and Attorney General of Pakistan who played a key role in the framing of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. Zeba's mother was a Hungarian woman.
^ ab"Azaan Sami Khan discusses relation with father, Adnan Sami Khan". The News. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2020. Speaking about family dynamics, Azaan first revealed, "My mother's mother was English; her parents were Hungarian. My grandfather met her in the early 1940s," he revealed.
