Jharna Basak (born 17 August 1946), known by her stage name Shabnam, is a Bangladeshi–Pakistani stage and film actress.
Shabnam was born on 17 August 1946 in Dhaka, in the erstwhile British India in a Bengali Hindu family.
Her father was Nani Basak, a football referee from Dhaka.
As a young girl, she was more adventurous and tomboyish in nature in comparison to her sister, who was into singing.
She would still practice dance moves.
She was offered a role in a movie as a supporting dancer, thus beginning her career in arts.
Shabnam began her career when her father got her admitted into the Bulbul Lalitakala Academy.
A close friend of her father got her a role in a dance sequence in the movie "Ei Desh Tomar Amar".
Her next role was as a dancer in the movie "Rajdhanir Bukey".
When the song became a hit, the audience requested that she be cast as a lead actress.
That was when she starred in her Bengali debut film as a heroine, Harano Din.
Shabnam moved to West Pakistan after the director Ehtesham cast her in his Urdu movie Chanda in the erstwhile West Pakistan.
Since her Urdu wasn't that proficient at that point in time, the rehearsals were scripted in Bengali.
The music of this film was composed by her husband Robin Ghosh.
The film turned out to be a hit, starting her career in the top ranks of the Pakistan film industry.
1960
Shabnam remained active in Lollywood in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
She has been nominated for Nigar awards several times, winning it 13 times (the most for an actress).
She has appeared in over 150 films films.
She was a leading actress in the Pakistani film industry for 28 years.
She is considered to probably be the only film actress in the world to have continuously and successfully played the romantic lead in films for almost three decades, from the early 1960s to the late 1980s.
After the Bangladesh Liberation War had ended, Shabnam wanted to visit her native homeland.
It took her two years to get the "No Objection Certificate" which was required for her to get a Bangladeshi visa.
It was later revealed that Lollywood had requested the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan to not give her a visa, as they feared she would not return from Bangladesh.
Nevertheless, she reassured her fans and colleagues that she would not abandon Pakistan, and would be back after visiting her parents.
Only then did the Foreign Ministry let her leave Pakistan, making sure their most popular actress would not leave.
1968
Actor Waheed Murad introduced her to the Pakistani film industry by offering her a lead role in his film Samundar in 1968.
Shabnam migrated from East to West Pakistan in 1968, and lived in the country until the late 1990s, later she returned to her native Bangladesh.
1970
After starring in dozens of super-hit films, Shabnam became the number one reigning actress in Pakistan by the early 1970s.
1980
She retained that position until the mid-1980s, when she slowly started to retire.
1987
Since 1987 she made London her place of residence.
1988
Around 1988, she switched on to character acting and was again doing films in her native Dhaka and Lahore.
1990
Shabnam left Pakistan and its film industry in the late 1990s.
1997
She gracefully retired and moved to Bangladesh in 1997.
According to her, she retired because of her age, and her duty to look after her parents, as they were entering their last years.
She planned on retiring after her super-hit blockbuster film Aaina.
But because of the overwhelming number of fans and offers she had in Pakistan, it took her 20 years to finish her last films, and then enter retirement.
After returning to Dhaka and taking a break for 2 years, Shabnam lastly performed in movie 'Ammajan,’ directed by Kazi Hayat.
1999
She performed in that movie in the central role and it was released in 1999.
The film went on to be a super-hit and one of the most successful movies in Bangladeshi film history.
2012
In 2012, Shabnam visited Pakistan along with her husband after 13 years, where they were awarded lifetime achievement award by the Pakistani government.
