Amrita Singh Biography

Born: February 9, 1958, Hadali

Height: 1.57 m

Spouse: Saif Ali Khan (m. 1991–2004)

Children: Sara Ali Khan, Ibrahim Ali Khan

Parents: Shavinder Singh, Rukhsana Sultana

Begum Ayesha Sultana, born as Amrita Singh  is an Indian film and television actress.

Early life

Amrita was born to a Sikh-Muslim family. She is the daughter of Rukhsana Sultana, who was a political activist and Shavinder Singh, who was an army officer.

Her maternal grandmother Zarina, was the elder sister of actor Begum Para, mother of actor Ayub Khan. She was also the daughter of Mian Ehsan Ul Haque, who came from a landowning family. He was a judge and the Chief Justice of the highest court in the princely state of Bikaner, northern Rajasthan. Through her father, she is a relative of novelist Khushwant Singh and businessman Sir Sobha Singh of New Delhi.

She attended Modern School in New Delhi and is fluent in the English, Punjabi and Hindi languages.

Film career

1983 to 1993

Amrita made her Bollywood debut in 1983 with Betaab, a vastly successful film in which she was paired with Sunny Deol. This was quickly followed by a succession of hits, such as: Sunny in 1984, Mard (which was the biggest hit of that year) and Saaheb in 1985, Chameli Ki Shaadi and Naam in 1986, Khudgarz in 1987, etc. Amrita made a successful pair in several films not only with Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt, but also with Anil Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan, two leading actors of the 1980s. 

As well as playing leading roles, she also played supporting negative roles in films such as Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992) and Aaina (1993). She also won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for the latter. These successes did not dissuade her from her resolve to retire into family life and Amrita quit acting after 1993.

2002 to Present

She returned to acting in 2002 with the film 23rd March 1931: Shaheed, in which she played the mother of Bhagat Singh (played by Bobby Deol). She then appeared on the STAR Plus television serial, Kkavyanjali, in 2005. Later that year, she won acclaim for her performance in yet another negative role for the film Kalyug.

In 2007, Amrita played the role of the gangster Maya Dolas' mother, Ratnaprabha Dolas, in the Sanjay Gupta film Shootout at Lokhandwala, directed by Apoorva Lakhia. Vivek Oberoi played the role of Maya. Later on Amrita appeared in the anthology film Dus Kahaniyaan, where she appeared in the short story Poornmasi.

Continuing her acting journey, Amrita played in the film Kajraare in 2010 and recently appeared in Aurangzeb under the Yash Raj Films banner where she was paired with Jackie Shroff after almost two decades

Personal life

In 1991, Amrita married Saif Ali Khan, twelve years her junior. He is the son of cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the Ninth Nawab of Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore. In 1993, she gave up acting for a family life with her then husband. Together they have two children, a daughter named Sara Ali Khan (born September 1993) and a son named Ibrahim Ali Khan (born October 2001).

Although Sara's Bollywood entry is not finalized yet, she was seen as part of a Marathi Nrutya-Naatika (Dance-Play). Saif attended the show to see his daughter's dance performance.

After thirteen years of marriage, they divorced in 2004.