Wonder Woman Gal Gadot battled for salary parity. Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone too joined the cycle and set an example. Suraiya, a great Bollywood star, is likely to be profiled in a chapter when the female actors made as much money as their male counterparts. At the age of 20, Suraiya overtook Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, and Ashok Kumar as the highest-paid actor in India, a position he held for more than fifty years.
Success for Suraiya was no accident. No godfather took credit for it. Pure talent and hard work went into it. Indian audiences of a specific generation may recall Suraiya as a captivating singer throughout the 1940s and 1950s with a soulful voice and captivating looks. She first made an impression on the audience and members of the film business in the 1946 movie Omar Khayyam, where she played the Persian poet’s lover opposite KL Saigal. She achieved the pinnacle of her career and rose to the position of highest-paid artist of her era with roles in films like Pyar ki Jeet (1948), Badi Behan (1949), and Dillagi (1949).
Musician Nuashad recognised Suraiya’s vocal ability while she was just 13 years old. She was given the opportunity to playback for Mehtab, the well-known actor of the time, for the song “Panchhi Jaa, peechhe raha hai bachpan mera” in the movie Sharda (1942) because he identified her soul-stirring voice.
In the 1943 film Hamari Baat by Bombay Talkies, she gained recognition as an actor-singer. Then Ishara and Suraiya of DRD Productions got the chance to work with Prithviraj, the father of Raj Kapoor, an old acquaintance. Soon, musicals like Phool, Samarat Chandragupta, Aaj Ki Raat, Dard, Dillagi, Natak, Afsar, Kajal, Dastan, Sanam, and Char Din came to be associated with Suraiya.
In an interview with Stardust in 1972, Suraiya had reflected on her heydays, saying, “I came under good banners with able directors, top actors and I was particularly lucky in getting meaty and selected roles.” She ruled the mid-1940s as a singer-actor along with Noor Jehan, the legendary Pakistani singer who left India after the Partition. Pran Nevile in the book, KL Saigal: The Definite Biography, wrote about Suraiya, “No one could imagine that this simple young girl, without any training in classical music, would one day emerge as the leading singing superstar.”
Suraiya described her, “She was the dominating figure of our household. She controlled all of us. I was shy, timid, obedient and very, very frightened (of her).”
At the first International Film Festival of India in 1952, Suraiya sent Hollywood director Frank Capra her autographed portrait to send to Gregory Peck, who she greatly admired.
Suraiya’s zeal for life and her work was diminished by this setback on the personal front. Her films lost their magical quality in the early 1950s. With the biographical drama Mirza Ghalib, she temporarily experienced success once more in 1954.
She was also lauded by the former Prime Minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru for the film, who had told her, ‘Tumne Mirza Ghalib kii ruuh ko zindaa kar diyaa (You brought Mirza Ghalib’s soul alive)’.
In 1963, she co-starred in Rustam Sohrab alongside Prithviraj Kapoor, but the movie bombed at the box office. However, she performed “Ye kaisi ajab dastan ho gayi hai” in the movie as her farewell song, which was a huge hit with the audience. Gregory Peck, a well-known actor from Hollywood, was one of her favourites and made a point to see her at home when in India.
At the age of 34, Suraiya retired in 1963. The golden name that once piqued moviegoers’ interest vanished from the silver screen. She declined offers for playback singing and fell into obscurity before passing away in 2004 as a result of health problems.