NEWS DESK
A well known Delhi-based writer, columnist, activist and socialite Sadia Dehlvi passed away in New Delhi today following prolonged illness. She was battling with cancer for many years.
She was daughter of Yunus Dehlvi the editor of famous filmi magazine Shmaa and Sushma. Sadia also edited a magazine named ‘Bano’
Sadia Dehlvi was born in Delhi in 1957. Her grandfather was Yusuf Dehlvi and father is Yunus Dehlvi who lived in Shama Ghar on Sardar Patel Road, in New Delhi where she was born.
She authored book on Sufism entitled Sufism: The heart of Islam published by HarperCollins Publishers, India. Her second book, The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi, detailing Delhi’s Sufi history was also published by HarperCollins, India and released in February 2012.
She edited Bano an Urdu women’s journal for the Shama Group, which published Shama an Urdu literary and film monthly. It eventually closed in 1987.
Dehlvi was a close friend and confidante of the late author Khushwant Singh. Singh’s book Not a Nice Man to Know was dedicated to her. He wrote, “To Sadia Dehlvi, who gave me more affection and notoriety than I deserve.” Singh’s book, Men and Women in my Life includes an entire chapter on her and the cover has her photo. In 1998, Dehlvi produced a television show, Not a Nice man to Know with Khushwant Singh interviewing women from various fields.
Dehlvi won acclaim for her television series starring the veteran actress Zohra Sehgal Amma and Family. Dehlvi co-produced and scripted the series, also playing one of the main roles.
“I was born in 1957 in Shama Kothi where very glamorous and lavish banquets were thrown by my grandfather. We grew up entertaining film stars and literary figures because of Shama, our literary and film magazine. Our home was a stopover for film stars like Meena Kumari, Nargis, Raj Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Rakhi Gulzar, Dharmendra and Dimple Kapadia to literary greats like Ismat Chughtai and Ainee Apa (or Qurratulain Hyder) and poets like Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri and the like who would attend mehfils, mushairas and qawwalis at Shama Kothi” said Sadia in an interview to Hindustan Times in 2018.