Madhubala Age, Family, Husband, Death Cause, Biography, Controversies, Facts & More

Bio
Real Name	Begum Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi
Nickname	Venus Queen
Profession	Indian Film Actress
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 163 cm in meters- 1.62 m in feet inches- 5’ 4”
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms- 55 kg in pounds- 117 lbs
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	14 February 1933
Birth Place	Delhi, British India
Date of Death	23 February 1969
Place of Death	Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Age (at the time of death)	36 Years
Death Cause	Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) (Hole in the Heart)
Zodiac sign/Sun sign	Aquarius
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Delhi, India
Debut	Film: Basant (1942)
Family	Father- Attaullah Khan Mother- Ayesha Begum, Mumtaz Jehan Brothers- Two Sisters- Chanchal (actress), Madhur Bhushan (Zahida) (playback singer), Kainz Balsara, Altaf Kowal, Shahida Kazi
Religion	Islam
Hobbies	Driving
Controversies	When her father denied her outdoor shooting with Dilip Kumar in Bhopal for the film 'Naya Daur'(1957); B.R Chopra sued her for the advanced money that she received for this movie. Dilip Kumar also testified against Madhubala and her father in the court, in favour of Chopra.
Favourite Things
Favourite Actor	Dilip Kumar
Boys, Affairs and More
Marital Status	Married
Affairs/Boyfriends	Dilip Kumar Kishore Kumar
Husband	Kishore Kumar
Marriage Date	1960

Some Lesser Known Facts About Madhubala

• Did Madhubala smoke?: Not Known

• Did Madhubala drink alcohol?: Not Known

• Due to her matchless beauty, she earned the title ‘Venus Of the Indian Screen.’

• Her screen name was given to her by actress Devika Rani.

• She belonged to a poor Pathan Muslim family in Delhi, India.

• Her three sisters and two brothers died at a small age.

• She was the sister in law of a famous actor and music composer Brij Bhushan Sahni.

• In 1944, the Bombay explosion destroyed her small house in Bombay.

• At the tender age of nine, she started looking for a job in Bombay.

• She commenced her career as a child actress from the movie ‘Basant’ (1942).

• Her work in film industry provided a financial help to her family.

• She learned driving at the age of 12 and liked to drive long sometimes.

• She liked dogs and had kept 18 in her house.

• At the age of eleven, she met Dilip Kumar first time on the film set of ‘Jwar Bhata’ in 1944 and then again worked with him in the film ‘Har Singaar’ in 1949.

• At the age of 14, she worked in the film ‘Neel Kamal’ (1947), produced and directed by Kidar Sharma. She played a romantic lead with Raj Kapoor in this movie. 

• With the popularity of her movie ‘Mahal’ (1949), she became a superstar. 

• Legendary director Frank Capra wanted to bring her in Hollywood Industry to give her an international career, but her conservative father never allowed her to go.

• In 1951, at the age of eighteen, she became more intimate with Dilip Kumar on the film set of ‘Tarana.’ During these days, she sent a letter to him in the Urdu language with a red rose and asked him to accept it if he loved her. Dilip Kumar accepted it. Both remained in a romantic relationship for seven years. But she had to give up the courtship with Dilip due to her father’s opposition to him.

• Her sister stated that Madhubala’s parents didn’t like her to attend public functions or any premieres.

• Her beauty was so famous worldwide that several foreign periodicals like American LIFE magazine featured her beautiful photographs and the ‘Theatre Arts’ journal published an article on her glamour with her picture in its August 1952 edition. It also gave her the title “The Biggest Star in the World – and she’s not in Beverly Hills.” 

• Later, she was proposed for marriage by Kishore Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, and Bharat Bhushan.

• While remembering her; Dev Anand said that she liked to flirt and used to play one against the other out of innocence.

• She met Kishore Kumar during the making of the movie ‘Dhake Ki Malmal’ in 1956.

• She accepted the proposal of Kishore Kumar who adopted Islam and took up the name Karim Abdul to marry her.

• As per the opinion of Leena Chandavarkar (singer Kishore’s fourth wife), when Madhubala found that Dilip Kumar was not going to marry her, just to prove that she could marry anyone she liked, she decided to marry Kishore Kumar whom she didn’t even know properly.

• Ashok Kumar revealed that her illness made her bad-tempered and she used to go to her father’s house after having a fight with him.

• She produced the films like ‘Naata’ (1955) and ‘Mahlon Ke Khwab’ (1960) and also acted in them.

• The biggest hits of her career are ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ (1960), ‘Mr. & Mrs. 55’ (1955), ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi’ (1958), ‘Barsaat Ki Raat’ (1960), and ‘Tarana.’ 

• With the release of ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ on 5 August 1960, she touched the sky of success and the movie’s highest grossing record remained unbroken for fifteen years. 

• During the making of ‘Mughal-E-Azam,’ to make her imprisoned scenes real; director K. Asif shackled her in real iron chains that caused injuries on her skin and she remained in pain for several days.

• She worked in almost 70 movies.

• She suffered from a heart disease for nine years that she didn’t expose to anyone and continued to work hard until she victimized serious health issues.

• Her fatigue and weakness were growing on daily basis and one day while working in the movie ‘Bahut Din Hue’ (1954), she vomited blood on the set.

• In the mid-1950s, her disease came to the public light and soon it gave her the label “box office poison.”

• In 1960, she sought treatment at a hospital in London, but doctors refused to operate as the heart transplantation and healing was not possible.

• In 1966, she tried to complete her movie ‘Chalak’ but she couldn’t bear the strain of shooting.

• Realizing that her career as an actress in the film industry had finished; she decided to enter into the field of movie direction and made her directorial debut with the film ‘Farz Aur Ishq.‘ But due to her serious health issues, she could not complete it.

• When doctors said that she had only two years to live; Kishore Kumar left Madhubala at her father’s home saying that he couldn’t look after her due to his outdoor tours. He bore the whole expenses of her treatment and used to visit her after every two months.

• According to her sister, her malady was aggravated so much that her body started producing extra blood that spilled out from her mouth and nose. Besides this, she suffered from the pulmonary pressure of the lungs and used to cough all the times.

• Madhur Bhushan disclosed the fact that at the time of birth, Madhubala had cyanosis, poor oxygen perfusion and Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD).

• Confined to bed; her body reduced to just skin and bones and eventually, she left this world at the age of 36 only.

• On 18 March 2008, the Indian post issued a commemorative postage stamp featuring Madhubala. 

• On 10 August 2017, a statute of Madhubala was unveiled by Madame Tussaud’s center in New Delhi. 

• As per the opinion of ‘Self-Portrait’ book’s author; she liked to cover herself with veiled secrecy around her to escape to be seen in the social gatherings.

• She had also worked in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films.