Sabira Merchant: A life lived head on
Sabira Merchant is an actor and etiquette trainer who is celebrated for founding the famous nightclub, Studio 29, in her home city of Mumbai, India.
In India, Sabira Merchant is a name associated with sophistication and elegance 鈥� she鈥檚 an etiquette trainer who has coached big-name stars including Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta. Hers has always been a life lived head on. As a girl, she was sent to a Swiss finishing school, and she went on to marry and have children as was expected of her. But in the 1960s, when her children were still small, she took up acting, becoming a renowned thespian in Mumbai. In the 1970s she became nationally famous as host a TV quiz show, What鈥檚 The Good Word? 鈥� the first English-language show of its kind in India. She went on to open a famous nightclub in Mumbai, Studio 29, which was where the city鈥檚 elite partied in the 1980s. Now aged 80 she published her memoir, A Full Life (2022).
Presenter: India Rakusen
Producer: Jo Impey and Hetal Bapodra
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Photo: Sabira Merchant Credit: Sambha Vora
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