It is heartening to find that despite the box-office hold of the top-liners among stars, some promising new faces are fast coming into prominence. One of them is Purnima, a budding starlet. Purnima has not yet hit the proverbial headlines but her name is already in the news.

Coming from a respectable Muslim family of Lucknow,she was born and brought up in Bombay where her father the late Mr. Mahmud Ali was having a flourishing business. Purnima’s real name is Meher Bano. After passing her Matrick from a convent school at Mahim, she married Publicist Shaukat Hussain Hashmi, B.A. who is quite well known in the field of Publicity and film-journalism. At present Shaukat Hashmi is attached to Nargis Art Concern.

Punima could well be counted among those rare people who have jumped to stardom overnight. For her very first screen assignment, she got the heroine’s role in Ranjit’s double version picture “Radhe Shyam” or “Narad Muni”. She has also played one of the important roles in Kedar Sharma’s “Thes” and Verma Film’s “Patanga”.

Unlike her other counterparts in the starry skies, Purnima shuns publicity. A fond mother and a devoted wife, she is more or less a “home bird”, spending most of her time in looking after her four year old son.

Purnima’s pet hobby is writing short stories and poems in Urdu. She has a fine collection of classical Urdu literature in her little library and indeed she boasts of it – with pardonable pride! She dislikes the high-pressure ballyhoo that precedes a star’s maiden performance. “Praise me – if you must – but only after seeing my work” she says with a meaningful twinkle in her eye.

Purnima likes film-work but avoids crowds. She likes intelligent friends but hates society snobs. Her tiny little world is complete within the four corners of her home. Recently she has signed a contract with Nargis Art Concern and she says she feels completely at home here. No wonder, at her present rare of progress, this rising starlet threatens to monopolize the headlines of tomorrow! (This interview was conducted in 1949).