Chand Burke

Chand Burke (2 February 1932 – 28 December 2008), also known as Chand Burque, was an Indian character actress in Hindi and Punjabi language films.

Career

Chand Burke made her debut in Maheshwari Productions’ Kahan Gaye (1946). Chand appeared in a number of films made in Lahore, and was widely known as “the Dancing Lily of the Punjab.” The Partition of India led to her migration to Mumbai (then Bombay) thus adversely affecting her career.

She was given her first break in Bollywood by the veteran actor Raj Kapoor in the film titled, Boot Polish (1954), where she played the pivotal role of Baby Naaz and Rattan Kumar's tormenting aunt.

Personal life

Burke was born in a Punjabi Christian family of twelve brothers and sisters in the Punjab Province of British India (in what is now Pakistan). Her brother, Samuel Martin Burke, was Indian Civil Service officer who later became a diplomat to the Scandinavian countries for Pakistan. After divorcing her film writer-director husband Niranjan in 1954, she married businessman Sundar Singh Bhavnani in 1955 with whom she had a daughter named Tonya and a son named Jagjit, who is the father of Indian film actor Ranveer Singh.

Filmography