Born on April 27, 1912 in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh as Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-Ullah Khan in a traditional Muslim family, Sehgal, third of her seven siblings, grew up in Chakrata near Dehradun and was sent to Lahore to pursue her higher education. Photo: Sampath Kumar G ▲
Veteran actress Zohra Sehgal reacts while cutting cake on her 100th birthday in New Delhi in April 2012. Photo: PTI ▲
This Hindu Archive picture shows Zohra Sehgal with her sister from Pakistan Uzra Butt at a press conference in New Delhi in August 2003. ▲
Zohra Segal with (from left) great-granddaughter Madhyama, daughter Kiran and granddaughter Sujata. Zohra married scientist, painter and dancer Kameshwar Sehgal in August 1942. The couple had two children, Kiran and Pavan. Kameshwar died in 1952 and Zohra raised the children all by herself. Photo: Special Arrangement ▲
An outstanding theatre artist and a celebrated Odissi dancer, Zohra has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, toured more than 112 Cities, with "Prithvi Theatres", accompanied by her daughter Kiran Sehgal as a child artiste. A dedicated performer, she once conducted eight shows in a week in Birmingham, UK. ▲
In younger days: Zohra Sehgal with sister Uzra Butt. Photo: Special Arrangement ▲
The woman who epitomised life apparently often asked her daughter for euthanasia. “I would like to take an injection and go to sleep,” said the woman who battled cancer in the mid-1990s. In the picture, Zohra Sehgal gets emotional during a condolence meeting in memory of eminent theatre personality Habib Tanvir at Abhimanch Theatre, NSD, in New Delhi in June 2009. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty ▲
18-year-old Zohra went to Germany in 1930 and studied modern dance for three years before joining Uday Shankar's experimental dance troupe in 1935. She toured the world. Meanwhile, just a year after the young Zohra left India, Indian cinema had achieved a new milestone with its first talkie — Alam Ara — in 1931. In the picture, Jamila Massey, an acclaimed and senior Asian actor in Britain, with Zohra Sehgal in Hedda, an adaptation of Ibsen's play. Photo: Special Arrangements ▲
Considered the doyenne of Indian theatre, Sehgal acted with Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and Prithviraj Kapoor’s Prithvi Theatre for fourteen years. In the picture, Zohra Segal with actor Shashi Kapoor during the book release function of Prithviwallahs in New Delhi in November 2004. Photo: Anu Pushkarna ▲
Zohra Sehgal receiving the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2005 from then President APJ Abdul Kalam as Jaipal Reddy (the then I&B Minister) looks on. Photo: Rajeev Bhat ▲
In the April 2012 photo, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur releases a book on Zohra Sehgal on the latter's 100th birthday in New Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar ▲
“All my life I have been active in my profession since October 8, 1935. Even when my children were born, or my husband committed suicide, I managed to carry on. After the 75th year of my career, I decided to stop,” - Zohra Sehgal. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar ▲