Remembering Esther Victoria Abraham (Better known by her stage name, Pramila) the first beauty queen of Independent India - Miss India 1947

The first beauty queen of Independent India - Miss India 1947.
Mother of a beauty queen. Her daughter, Naqi Jahan was Miss India 1967.

First major Woman Film Producer, with 16 movies under her Silver Productions Banner.

Esther Victoria Abraham (Better known by her stage name, Pramila) was born in Calcutta on December 30th, 1916 in a conservative Baghdadi Jewish family.

She was the first woman to be voted as Miss India in 1947. She was 31 years old and was pregnant with her fifth child during her Miss India moment.

Esther, attended Calcutta Girls’ High School, but shifted to St James which was a co-educational school at that time. Esther quickly learned that to excel she had to be better than the boys. She proved not only a good student, but also to be a very talented sportswoman. She was a hockey champion and won many trophies in sports. Esther was very good at drawing, and on graduating from High School qualified and received an Arts Degree, administered from Cambridge.

On completing her high school degree, she went to work as a kindergarten teacher in the Talmud Torah Boy’s School. Esther was so pretty that the boys in the school would find all kinds of excuses to go and speak to their very attractive and glamorous teacher. The stunning looking teacher at the Talmud Torah was ambitious, and despite having completed her B.Ed. degree, did not stay long in the teaching profession.

Esther admired her cousin Rose Ezra and her sister Sophie (Romila) who had left Calcutta to join the Bombay film industry. 4 A visit to them in Bombay changed the trajectory of her life.

Esther stayed on in Bombay and was signed up to work at Irani’s Imperial Company. In those days actors were bound to the studio. Esther was loaned to Movietone to play a Westernized vamp in Bhikaran. When Bhikaran was released in 1935, Esther’s Anglicized Hindi became quite a rage. It was Baburao Pendharkar who gave her the screen name Pramila.

She acted in nearly 30 films and played roles that were antithesis of the lead roles played by sari-clad heroines. She was the vamp who played the piano.

She went on to star in about 30 films as a vamp and a fearless stunt star, including Ulti Ganga, Bijli, Basant, Bhikarin and Jungle King.

Not only this, she became the first major woman film producer, with 16 films under her Silver Productions banner.

Pramila was a multi talented person. Not only was she a fine actor and film producer, she was also a graduate of the University of Cambridge, became a skilled teacher, often designed her own film costumes and jewellary.

In 1967, her daughter Naqi Jahan was crowned as Miss India. It was the first mother and daughter pair to do so.

Her last film role was at the age of 90 in the movie, Thaang (2006), directed by Bollywood actor Amol Palekar. 

She died on August 6, 2006.
one of her movies Dilawar (1931) with Master Vithal Mubarak is available on youtube