GiseleStead at 17:17, 17 December 2025

2025-12-17T17:17:12Z

New page

{{Short description|Actor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gulab Bai
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = 1926
| birth_place = Balpurva, [[Kannauj district]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], India
| death_date = 1996 (aged 69–70)
| death_place =
| restingplace =
| restingplacecoordinates =
| othername = Gulab jaan
| occupation = Stage performer<br/>Folk musician
| yearsactive =
| known for = [[Nautanki]]
| spouse =
| domesticpartner =
| children =
| parents =
| website =
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]
}}
'''Gulab Bai''' (1926–1996), popularly known as '''Gulab jaan''', was an Indian stage performer of [[Nautanki]],<ref name="Gulab Bai (1926–96)">{{cite book |isbn=9780195644463 |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195644463.001.0001/acref-9780195644463-e-0203 |title=Gulab Bai (1926–96) |publisher=The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre |date=2004 |access-date=28 September 2015 |author=Ananda Lal}}</ref> the first female artist of the traditional operatic drama <ref name="Dying Drama">{{cite web |url=http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=6264 |title=Dying Drama |publisher=Booji |date=2015 |access-date=28 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510211854/http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=6264 |archive-date=10 May 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and considered by many as its pre-eminent exponent.<ref name="Amazon profile">{{cite book |last1=Mehrotra |first1=Deepti Priya |title=Amazon profile |date=2015 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0143100430 }}</ref> She was the founder of ''the Great Gulab Theatre Company'', a successful Nautanki troupe.<ref name="Biography Page 179">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tjyemJStPpUC&q=the+Great+Gulab+Theatre+Company&pg=PA179 |title=Biography Page 179 |publisher=Rediff |date=2015 |isbn=9780143100430 |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref> The [[Government of India]] awarded her the fourth highest civilian award of [[Padma Shri]] in 1990.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |archive-date=15 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Biography==
Gulab Bai was born in 1926 in Balpurva, in [[Farrukhabad district]] of the Indian state of [[Uttar Pradesh]] in [[Bedia (caste)|Bedia]] caste, a backward community of entertainment performers.<ref name="Gulab Bai (1926–96)" /><ref name="Penguin Books profile">{{cite web |url=http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/gulab-bai%3Frate=vj-3_Ysjn8fztsCuUwS58mO9GKm6pQF6ryBeBtgAo-M.html |title=Penguin Books profile |publisher=Penguin Books |date=2015 |access-date=28 September 2015}}</ref> She started formal training in singing under Ustad Trimohan Lal of the Kanpur [[gharana]] and Ustad Mohammad Khan of the Hathras gharana in 1931 and began performing in public by joining Trimohan Lal's Nautanki troupe at the age of thirteen, becoming the first female performer of the art form. Soon, she developed an individual style of singing which earned her the moniker, ''Guba jaan''.

Her rising popularity helped her to establish a Nautanki troupe of her own, the ''Great Gulab Theatre Company'', against the wishes of Trimohan Lal.<ref name="Biography Page 179" /> The company was said to be an instant success. The responsibility of the management of the company and her growing age forced her to curb her own performances by the 1960s <ref name="Dying Drama" /> and she groomed her little sister, Sukhbadan, later day Nanda Guha, as the leading performer, who over the years became a noted performer in her own right.<ref name="Biography Page 179" /> Her daughter, Madhu, is also a known performer.<ref name="Dying Drama" /> Towards the latter part of her career, Nautanki's appeal, as an art form, gradually waned.<ref name="Penguin Books profile" />

The Government of India honoured her with the civilian award of the [[Padma Shri]] in 1990.<ref name="Padma Awards" /> Six years later, she died, at the age of 70.<ref name="Gulab Bai (1926–96)" /> Her life has been documented in a biography by Deepti Priya Mehrotra, under the name, ''Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre''; the book was published by [[Penguin India]].<ref name="Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tjyemJStPpUC |title=Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre |publisher=Penguin India |author=Deepti Priya Mehrotra |year=2006 |pages=318 |isbn=9780143100430}}</ref> Her life story was also the theme of a play, enacted on stage in May 2014 at [[Kanpur]].<ref name="Actors and theatre artists watch the play 'Gulab Bai' in Lucknow">{{cite web |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/lucknow/Actors-and-theatre-artists-watch-the-play-Gulab-Bai-in-Lucknow/articleshow/35017259.cms |title=Actors and theatre artists watch the play 'Gulab Bai' in Lucknow |publisher=Times of India |date=12 May 2014 |access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Nautanki]]
{{portal|India|Theater}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ibyV0e8WIY |title=Legendary artist Gulab Bai ( Queen of Nautanki Theatre ) |publisher=Kalakunj |work=[[YouTube]] video |date=1982 |access-date=29 September 2015}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |title=Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre |publisher=Penguin India |author=Deepti Priya Mehrotra |year=2006 |pages=318 |isbn=9780143100430}}

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Art}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Gulab}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts]]
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Farrukhabad district]]
[[Category:Indian women folk singers]]
[[Category:Indian folk singers]]
[[Category:Indian folklorists]]
[[Category:Indian stage actresses]]
[[Category:Indian theatre managers and producers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian actresses]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women singers]]
[[Category:Women artists from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Singers from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Indian women folklorists]]

Gulab Bai - Revision history

GiseleStead at 17:17, 17 December 2025