She started participating in music sessions and was invited by the rulers of many princely states such as Rampur, Bikaner, Gwalior, Jammu and Kashmir, Indore, and Jodhpur to perform mehfils.

[citation needed] She later began acting when the Play Art Photo Tone Company of Lahore approached her for a role in their movie Raja Gopichand in 1933.

[5] She worked in two more movies, Prem Pariksha and Seva Sadan, before starting her own production company called Sangeet Films.

Her second marriage was to harmonium master Ustaad Irshad Meer Khan, a frequent collaborator, with whom she had her second son, actor Anwar Hussain.

Her third marriage was to Mohanchand Uttamchand ("Mohan Babu"), a wealthy Brahmin from Rawalpindi who converted to Islam and adopted the name Abdul Rashid.