Saira Banu was born in India to actress Naseem Banu of 30s-40s, and the granddaughter of a courtesan Chamiyan Bai, also known as Shamshad Begum (not to be confused with the famous playback singer of yesteryear Shamshad Begum. Her father was film Producer Mian Ehsan-ul-Haq, who Produced film Phool in Bombay and film Wadah in Pakistan. Saira had spent a significant part of her childhood in London, and went on to finish school.She was a very good actress at her school winning many awards and bringing laurels to her parents.

Banu made her acting debut at 17 years opposite Shammi Kapoor in the 1961 hit film Junglee for which she earned her first Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. The famous song from this movie "Yaahoo!! Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe" was a big hit. It was sung by the singer Mohammed Rafi. Junglee was written by Aghajani Kashmeri (aka Kashmiri and Agha Jani), who also coached her in Urdu dialogue delivery, given his background in Urdu literature and poetry from Lucknow. Junglee also instantly made her a successful actress throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. she got married to Dilip Kumar in 1966.But, it is said that the turning point of her life was Padosan the comedy and love story film which brought her to be the best actress.

Her valiant attempts to establish a reputation as an actress after Gopi, Sagina and Bairaag (all with Dilip Kumar) and films like Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Chaitali met with limited success. She did earn three additional Filmfare nominations as Best Actress for Shagird (1967), Diwana (1968), and Sagina (1974). In 1976, Saira chose to end her film career. Subsequently she weathered a storm in her marriage in 1980 which was quickly resolved. She then appeared in a cameo opposite her husband in Duniya (1984) and made her last film appearance in the 1988 film Faisla.

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