The real name of Meena Kumari was Mahjabeen Bano. After her first movie ‘Leather Face’, Vijay Bhatt changed her name and proposed to her three names to choose from—Prabha, Kamla and Meena. She eventually became ‘Meena Kumari’, although her nickname was Manju. She had two other sisters, one of whom got married to the famous actor Mahmood who is well-renowned for his comic roles. Starting her acting career as a child artist, she rose to unprecedented heights of fame and acclaim in her thirty-three years long career. She became the first female actor to have won a Filmfare Award. The movie ‘Baiju Bawra’ that got her this award also proved to be the first major film among many others that were to bring her tremendous success.     
Meena Kumari was an avid reader and a big fan of Mirza Ghalib at that. She owned an impressive collection of books in her personal library including all the works of Ghalib. At the sets of the movie ‘Benazir’, director Bimal Roy’s assistant got Meena introduced to the famous writer and poet Gulzar. This opened to her new avenues and she started writing poetry choosing ‘Naaz’ as her pen-name. A collection of her poetry was published under the title Tanha Chand. 
Her life and prosperous career were marred by heavy drinking, troubled relationships and subsequent deterioration of her health. The cause of her death on March 31, 1972 was liver cirrhosis. She is often cited by media and literary sources as "The Tragedy Queen", for her regular representation of grief-stricken and dramatic roles in her films and also for her real-life story.