Biography
Sardar Akhtar (also credited as Begum Akhtar or Sardar Begum) was an Indian actress and singer. Born in 1915 in Lahore, she began her career on the Urdu stage before moving into films, initially taking stunt and action roles.
She gained prominence with her role as the washerwoman in Sohrab Modi’s Pukar (1939), in which she also sang, and as the rural mother in Mehboob Khan’s Aurat (1940). She appeared as a singer in Satyajit Ray’s The Music Room (1958). Akhtar married director Mehboob Khan in 1942 and later took occasional character roles, including in Hulchul (1971). She died in 1986.
