Zaheeda

Zaheeda Hussain, commonly known by her mononym Zaheeda, is a former actress of Hindi films. Born in Mumbai, she is the daughter of Akhtar Hussain, who was a film producer and the son of director Jaddanbai. Actress Nargis Dutt was her aunt and character actor Anwar Hussain her uncle. Zaheeda is best known for Anokhi Raat (1968), Gambler (1971) and Prem Pujari (1970). Dev Anand offered her the role of Jasbir/Janice in the cult-film Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971) but she was reluctant to play the leading actor's sister, and turned it down, preferring to play the role of his beloved (eventually played by Mumtaz). The sister role was accepted by Zeenat Aman which catapulted her to fame. Zaheeda continued to play the heroine in a few films during the early 1970s with newer actors of the time like Vinod Mehra and Rakesh Pandey but they all flopped, and she eventually retired from films.