Biography

Her only child is famous actress Asha Parekh for whom she worked as a costume dresser on several films.

Worked as a social worker when she was pregnant with daughter Asha Parekh in 1942.

After marriage, she converted to Hinduism, and her husband changed her name from Salma to Sudha. When they built their beautiful seaside bungalow in 1963, they named the house "Sudha" after her. She lived there until her death in 1990.

She was born into a Bohra Muslim family. She fell in love with her neighbor, Bachubhai Motilal Parekh, a Vaishnav Gujarati, when she was a teenager. He made the first move by sending her love letters. Inter-religious marriages were forbidden and their parents opposed the union. After a three-year courtship, they eloped on August 1, 1941 with only their friends present, since neither of their families chose not to attend. Sudha was 20, Bachubhai was 21. A year later, their daughter Asha Parekh was born, and that event eventually brought a truce between the two families. The marriage lasted until Sudha's death, nearly 50 years later.

She attended Fergusson college and had several careers over her life. She worked as a social worker, tutored English. Then, she became her daughter Asha Parekh's manager, negotiating high salaries for her films. She also did the costumes and hairstyles for Asha in her films.