FC2Video

In 1840, a girl named Amiran (Bansree Mandhani) is kidnapped from her home in Faizabad by Dilawar Khan (Vishwajeet Pradhan) who had been sent to jail based upon the evidence presented by Amiran's father. To take his revenge, he kidnaps Amiran and sells her to a brothel in Lucknow run by Khannum Jaan (Shabana Azmi). Bua Hussaini (Himani Shivpuri) and Maulvi Sahib (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) adopt Amiran and treat her as their own daughter. In the company of Khurshid (Ayesha Jhulka), Bismillah (Divya Dutta), and one of the courtesan's sons, Gauhar Mirza (Puru Raajkumar), Amiran learns the art of being a courtesan, or tawaif. The girl turns into an elegant, poetic beauty by the name of Umrao Jaan (Aishwarya Rai). Umrao's beauty and poetry is enough to catch the eye of Nawab Sultan (Abhishek Bachchan). The two begin a passionate romance but, when his father hears of their relationship, he disowns Nawab Sultan from his life, wealth and property. The penniless Nawab goes to stay in the house of his uncle, who is a judge in Ghari, to sort himself out; Umrao is left desolate without him and prays every day for his return. Abhishek Bachchan as Nawab Aishwarya Rai as Amiran (Umrao Jaan) Shabana Azmi as Khanum Jaan Sunil Shetty as Faiz Ali Divya Dutta as Bismillah Himani Shivpuri as Bua Hussaini Puru Raaj Kumar as Gauhar Mirza Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Maulvi Sahib Ayesha Jhulka as Khurshid Bikram Saluja as Ashraf (Nawab Sultan's friend) Parikshat Sahni as Umrao's father Maya Alagh as Umrao's mother Vishwajeet Pradhan as Dilawar Khan (Amiran's abductor) Javed Khan as Peer Baksh (Dilawar Khan's accomplice) Bansree Madhani as Amiran (the young Umrao) Alexandre boisvert as sultan khan