Katy Mirza, real name Katiya, was born in Aden where her father was an income tax commissioner. In early sixties her family moved to Britain and that's where she grew up - Britain of Swinging Sixties.
At 17, Katy was noticed by a Sun news photographer while shopping in Oxford Street and he immediately offered her a career in modeling.
At the same time, she studied Graphics Design during the day and worked as a receptionist at the London Hilton in the evenings. Here she was spotted by a PR person for playboy Club.
On April 4, 1973, Katy Mirza was photographed dressed up as a playboy bunny at the London Playboy Club. Not every girl gets to be a bunny dressed in a corset, bunny ears, a collar, cuffs, and a fluffy cottontail, there are auditions and a selection process involved. She was picked up and it became her claim to fame. She was 24 and the only Asian girl selected. At that time she was already one of the top models working in India.
Later she became involved in social and charity work, all the while pursuing an acting career in Britain and in India. And she did work in a couple of films both in India and in Britain. But this work never made her famous. She is still remembered for something else.
In its 33rd Anniversary Issue, dated 29th December 2008, India Today magazine remembered Katy Mirza as one of the 10 best 'Eyecatchers' ever to have filled up the last 'celebrity' page of their issues.
The entry against her name reads:
(Via: India Today . The print version featured one more photograph of Katy Mirza - an old one by photographer Swapan Mukherjee [here])
The story of India of the 70s seems to be incomplete without her, without a buxom Katy Mirza:
- Writer Balwant Gargi invoking her name in his (autobiographical) book The Naked Triangle (1979).
It seems not only were the more ambitious young mod girls copying Katy Mirza and Komila Virk, but these two young women were also busy copying each other, or may be just one copying the more famous another. [Note the photograph (on the right) of Komila Virk]
Katy Mirza makes a more profound an appearance in Sudeep Chakravarti's novel Tin Fish (2005), a coming-of-age tale set in India of the 1970s.
Photographs of Katy Mirza make an appearance in a photo essay book by Rudrangshu Mukherjee (of The Telegraph) and Vir Sanghvi (of Hindustan Times) titled India: Then and Now(2006). The costly book, divided in two parts, traced the history and culture of India through exquisite photographs and accompanying essays. It covered India's Past (Then) and India's Present (Now).
In his review of the book, grand old man Khushwant Singh, made a special mention of the fact that the book had "a few nudes of nubile girls thrown in" and that "The present has one of Katy Mirza, the first Indian girl to be Playboy’s bunny girl, her chief asset being a larger-than-life-size bosom. The book is a feast for the eyes."
No wonder few people remember her "slimmer" small appearance in the following bollywood masala flick post the operation:
Doston se pyaar kiya - Goldfinger inspired title credit sequence of 1980 film Shaan featuring Katy Mirza(?).
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Realized that the model in that title sequence from Shaan is Katy Mirza thanks to an article by Jerry Pinto on Indian Bond films. [Maybe not. Check the Update]
According to IMDB, in 2006, Katy Mirza last appeared on screen in a UK Television series called "Jackanory" The Magician of Samarkand.
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Update: Complete Katy Mirza Collection
At the same time, she studied Graphics Design during the day and worked as a receptionist at the London Hilton in the evenings. Here she was spotted by a PR person for playboy Club.
On April 4, 1973, Katy Mirza was photographed dressed up as a playboy bunny at the London Playboy Club. Not every girl gets to be a bunny dressed in a corset, bunny ears, a collar, cuffs, and a fluffy cottontail, there are auditions and a selection process involved. She was picked up and it became her claim to fame. She was 24 and the only Asian girl selected. At that time she was already one of the top models working in India.
Later she became involved in social and charity work, all the while pursuing an acting career in Britain and in India. And she did work in a couple of films both in India and in Britain. But this work never made her famous. She is still remembered for something else.
In its 33rd Anniversary Issue, dated 29th December 2008, India Today magazine remembered Katy Mirza as one of the 10 best 'Eyecatchers' ever to have filled up the last 'celebrity' page of their issues.
The entry against her name reads:
In 1976, India Today wrote of Katy Mirza,an ex-Playboy bunny of awesome physical proportions,who was feuding with another starlet to land the female lead in the Hindi film, 007.
In 1978, Shobhaa De, then Kilachand,wrote in Eyecatchers of her “well-publicised operation to reduce her bustline by ten fulsome inches”.
Calling it Operation Bust, she said Mirza emerged “slimmer, lighter and with a big load off her chest”. Making a clean breast of it,what?
(Via: India Today . The print version featured one more photograph of Katy Mirza - an old one by photographer Swapan Mukherjee [here])
The story of India of the 70s seems to be incomplete without her, without a buxom Katy Mirza:
Young mod girls dying to be film heroines. All posing like Zeenat Aman. The more ambitious ones copying Komila Virk and Katy Mirza, their shirt always unbuttoned down to their navels,[...]
- Writer Balwant Gargi invoking her name in his (autobiographical) book The Naked Triangle (1979).It seems not only were the more ambitious young mod girls copying Katy Mirza and Komila Virk, but these two young women were also busy copying each other, or may be just one copying the more famous another. [Note the photograph (on the right) of Komila Virk]
Katy Mirza makes a more profound an appearance in Sudeep Chakravarti's novel Tin Fish (2005), a coming-of-age tale set in India of the 1970s.
Photographs of Katy Mirza make an appearance in a photo essay book by Rudrangshu Mukherjee (of The Telegraph) and Vir Sanghvi (of Hindustan Times) titled India: Then and Now(2006). The costly book, divided in two parts, traced the history and culture of India through exquisite photographs and accompanying essays. It covered India's Past (Then) and India's Present (Now).
In his review of the book, grand old man Khushwant Singh, made a special mention of the fact that the book had "a few nudes of nubile girls thrown in" and that "The present has one of Katy Mirza, the first Indian girl to be Playboy’s bunny girl, her chief asset being a larger-than-life-size bosom. The book is a feast for the eyes."
No wonder few people remember her "slimmer" small appearance in the following bollywood masala flick post the operation:
Doston se pyaar kiya - Goldfinger inspired title credit sequence of 1980 film Shaan featuring Katy Mirza(?).
-0-
Realized that the model in that title sequence from Shaan is Katy Mirza thanks to an article by Jerry Pinto on Indian Bond films. [Maybe not. Check the Update]
According to IMDB, in 2006, Katy Mirza last appeared on screen in a UK Television series called "Jackanory" The Magician of Samarkand.
-0-
Update: Complete Katy Mirza Collection
