Madhubala

Life and career

Birth and childhood (1933–1940)

Madhubala was born as Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi in Delhi, British India, on 14 February 1933. She was the fifth of eleven children—seven girls and four boys—of Ataullah Khan and Begum Ayeesha (also referred to as "Aayesha Begum"). Khan belonged to the Yusufzai tribe of Pashtuns from Peshawar valley, originating from Swabi District, North-West Frontier Province, and was an employee at the Imperial Tobacco Company in Peshawar before he moved the family to Delhi. Her mother was originally from Lahore.

Madhubala's four brothers died in childhood; her sisters who survived to adulthood were Kaneez Fatima, Altaf, Zeb (known professionally as Chanchal), Shahida and Madhur Bhushan (née Zahida). Madhubala did not receive any formal education; according to Bhushan, their father was reluctant to educate his daughters. Madhubala, however, gained proficiency in Urdu under her father's guidance. She and her sisters often spent time dancing and imitating film characters to entertain themselves.

Early roles and financial struggles (1941–1946)

Madhubala's opportunity to pursue a career in entertainment arose from her family's financial difficulties following Khan's loss of employment. She initially took part in children's radio programmes and sang compositions by Khwaja Khurshid Anwar.

Khan and the family eventually relocated to Bombay in search of better opportunities. Madhubala and her father began making frequent visits to film studios to find work. In 1942, a nine-year-old Madhubala was noticed by Bombay Talkies' head Devika Rani, who cast her in the production Basant. Her role was that of Ulhas and Mumtaz Shanti's daughter, who brings her separated parents together; she also sang two songs for herself. Released in July 1942, Basant became a major commercial success; however, Madhubala did not receive further work offers and returned to Delhi with her family.

In 1944, Rani summoned Madhubala for a role in Jwar Bhata (1944). Although Madhubala did not get the role, Khan decided to settle permanently in Bombay after seeing greater prospects in the film industry. The family settled in Malad. In April, their residence was completely destroyed during the Bombay Dock explosion; the family survived because it had left for a local cinema shortly before the blast. They subsequently had to seek shelter in a friend's residence. In a later interview, Madhubala recalled her early years as a period in which there were "moments free of care and filled with joy" followed by "hardship and the heart-breaking effort to live and sustain oneself".

At this time, Khan aimed for Madhubala to become the breadwinner of the family, although her sister Madhur Bhushan later asserted that Madhubala was not forced to work:

"My sister loved to sing and dance and was fond of music and poetry. It's wrong to accuse my father of compelling her to work in films – films came her way, he never pushed her into anything ... He couldn't imagine he'd get so caught up chaperoning her that he'd never get back to working himself."

Madhubala was eventually employed by Ranjit Studios in 1944. As studio executive Chandulal Shah deemed her too young for a leading role, she was given child roles in five Ranjit films, released between 1944 and 1946 under the screen name Baby Mumtaz. She was paid a monthly salary of ₹300, and became the sole earning member of her family.

Transition to leading roles and breakthrough (1947–1949)

In 1946, director Kidar Sharma had cast Madhubala in a juvenile role in Ranjit Studio's upcoming venture Bichara Bhagwan; however, when the film's leading actress, Kamla Chatterjee, died, he decided to replace her with the 14-year-old Madhubala. Sharma had previously directed Madhubala as a child artiste and was impressed by her hardworking nature, but Chandulal Shah deemed her unsuitable for a leading role and refused to finance the film; consequently, Sharma funded the production using his personal assets. He renamed the film Neel Kamal, with Madhubala playing a young princess who gets involved in a love triangle with characters played by debutante Raj Kapoor and Begum Para.

Madhubala was credited as "Mumtaz" in Neel Kamal. The film proved to be a commercial flop on its release in March 1947, but she and Kapoor were noted by critics for their onscreen chemistry and went on to appear together in more films: Mohan Sinha's Chittor Vijay and Dil Ki Rani (both 1947), and N. M. Kelkar's mythological Amar Prem (1948). She subsequently lowered her fees to attract further film offers, and adopted the screen name "Madhubala" on the suggestion of Mohan Sinha. Although it has often been suggested that Muslim actors including Madhubala adopted Hindu screen names to minimise cultural backlash, film scholar Rachel Dwyer argued that they were instead chosen to appear "more fashionable or less 'ethnic'."

Between 1947 and 1950, Madhubala appeared in 24 films. While most of her earlier work was unsuccessful and failed to propel her career, she received particular attention with the drama Lal Dupatta (1948). A report in The Bombay Chronicle stated that Madhubala "appears at her best" in the film with her "mischief and youth and charm", while film critic Baburao Patel hailed Lal Dupatta as the "first milestone of her maturity in screen acting", observing that Madhubala had developed from a child actress into an attractive young leading lady. She received further praise for her supporting role in Paras, one of the nine films she featured in 1949. Writing her profile three years later, Jagdish Bhatia compared Madhubala's portrayal of a deaf-mute girl to Jane Wyman's acclaimed performance in Johnny Belinda, and wrote that it "won her a million hearts overnight."

Madhubala's portrayal of an elusive woman who pretends to be an apparition in Bombay Talkies' Mahal (1949) established her as a leading lady. The reincarnation-themed film, co-starring Ashok Kumar, is considered an early example of Indian gothic cinema. Her role was intended for Suraiya, then the industry's most popular actress; however, director Kamal Amrohi insisted on casting Madhubala, wanting a new face for the role. Although studio executives opposed the decision, Amrohi later recalled that the film brought her "true capabilities" to wider recognition and established her as a polished actress.

Press controversy and rise to stardom (1950–1952)

As her stardom grew, Madhubala gained a reputation for strict punctuality and keeping a low public profile, and the media increasingly scrutinized her father Ataullah Khan's influence over her career. Her reclusivity was attributed to Khan, who reportedly restricted her studio hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and prohibited her from attending press previews, granting interviews, or interacting with film magazines.

In 1950, Madhubala became the subject of sustained negative press coverage following a production dispute during the filming of Nirala. She had refused to enter a pool for a sequence, citing hygiene concerns; this upset director P. L. Santoshi, who halted filming for days and circulated accounts portraying her as difficult to work with. Although Santoshi later accepted Khan's apology and filming resumed, the press continued publishing hostile reports. In response, Khan inserted clauses into her contracts barring journalists from entering her film sets. The All India Action Committee retaliated by imposing a formal boycott on Madhubala, refusing to publish her photographs, interviews, or publicity material. The dispute also led to death threats against Madhubala, prompting authorities to provide security measures.

Despite the ongoing boycott, Madhubala's film releases Beqasoor and Hanste Aansoo opened to a positive reception from audiences. The former became one of the top-earning films of the year, though critics were divided over her portrayal of a young wife who turns to stage dancing under financial strain; a writer for The Bombay Chronicle dismissed it as "about the poorest [effort] I have ever seen from her", describing her as "pretty but little else." With the romantic drama Madhubala (1950), she became one of the few actors to have a film named after them, alongside the 1930s star Sulochana. However, Madhubala earned negative reviews and bombed at the box office.

Madhubala added to her reputation with charitable work in August 1950 by donating ₹50,000 to the East Bengali refugees' relief fund, earning praise from Bombay Home Minister Morarji Desai, and later contributing ₹5,001 to the Society for the Rehabilitation of Crippled Children. She ventured into independent production this year with Lali Chandan (earlier named Kisan Ki Gae), which was, however, ultimately shelved. The drama Pardes (1950), in which she also starred with Rehman, marked Madhubala's first film as a producer, in collaboration with producer Prem Narayan Arora. Some journalists unsuccessfully attempted to get the film banned, but it became a commercial success on its release. In a year-end review of the Indian film industry of 1950, critic Daulatram Parshuram observed that Madhubala had "gradually gained top position" among the leading actresses, "and deservedly so".

Career expansion and fluctuations (1953–1955)

Having established herself in Hindi cinema, Madhubala sought more substantial roles and opportunities to work with acclaimed directors. Eager to collaborate with Bimal Roy, she lobbied for the title role in his upcoming film Biraj Bahu, but Roy considered her fee beyond the film's budget and eventually cast Kamini Kaushal. Madhubala however secured the lead role in Mehboob Khan's Amar after Meena Kumari withdrew during production.

1953 saw Madhubala produce and star in Rail Ka Dibba, playing a homeless woman who falls in love with Shammi Kapoor's character. The film received mixed reviews, with Ranjit Singh of The Sunday Standard dismissing it as "an average sort of a picture". In mid-1953, Madhubala and Ataullah Khan founded the production company Madhubala Private Ltd. Managed largely by Khan, the company launched several projects that were later abandoned, resulting in financial losses.

Madhubala was also cast opposite Dilip Kumar as Anarkali in K. Asif's historical epic Mughal-e-Azam in 1953. Although she began filming the same year, production progressed slowly because of the film's scale and Asif's demands of perfectionism. Madhubala continued working on Mughal-e-Azam intermittently till 1959 while simultaneously managing other projects. The role of a Mughal-era court dancer was physically demanding, requiring her to perform scenes in heavy costumes and elaborate dance sequences that placed additional strain on her heart condition; she also occasionally collapsed on set.

Madhubala's health faltered in early 1954 during the filming of S. S. Vasan's Bahut Din Huwe in Madras. She vomited blood after a severe coughing spell, forcing a brief break from filming and bringing the first widespread press reports of her illness. After her recovery, she returned to complete the four-month production schedule. Bahut Din Huwe was a large-scale fantasy production by Gemini Studios, and according to Ashokamitran, it was the studio's first film to star an established North Indian film star like Madhubala. To show her gratitude for Vasan's support during her illness, she made a rare exception by attending the film's premiere. Bahut Din Huwe, however, was an unpopular release among audiences.

Dinesh Raheja retrospectively described Amar (1954) as "arguably Madhubala's first truly mature performance". The psychological melodrama saw her play a social worker who faces a moral crisis when she discovers that her fiancé (Dilip Kumar) has raped a woman (Nimmi). According to scholar Bhaskar Sarkar, Madhubala's role embodied the ideal and "modern (perhaps protofeminist)" Indian woman in post-partition cinema, and that her "angelic" persona increased the character's appeal. Amar was a critically acclaimed release but received minimal returns at the box office, which was attributed to its controversial subject matter. The commercial failure of Bahut Din Huwe and Amar—made by two of the industry's most successful producers—led to reports that some producers had begun to regard Madhubala as a "jinx".

Naya Daur court case and further work (1956–1957)

By the mid-1950s, media reports indicated that Madhubala was planning to marry Dilip Kumar; they had publicly confirmed their relationship making an appearance at the premiere of his film, Insaniyat (1955). However, Kumar had specified that he would prefer her to retire from acting following marriage—which was strongly objected by her father; it has been suggested that Khan viewed Kumar as a threat to his primary source of income. In his 2014 autobiography, Kumar wrote that her father also attempted to integrate the actor into Madhubala's production house, an offer which he was reluctant to accept, and that Madhubala "remained neutral and unmoved by my dilemma ... my resolve by then had become strongly against a union that would not be good for either of us."

Madhubala and Kumar's relationship unraveled during the troubled production of B. R. Chopra's Naya Daur (1957). She joined the cast in 1956 and initially completed ten days of filming before a dispute arose over a scheduled outdoor shoot in Bhopal. Citing health and safety concerns, Khan refused to allow Madhubala to travel, leading Chopra to replace her with Vyjayanthimala. Khan subsequently sued Chopra for dropping his daughter on "flimsy grounds", prompting Chopra to counter-sue Khan and Madhubala for breach of contract. The court case received extensive public attention, during which Kumar testified against her in court, alleging that she acted unprofessionally and that he never respected her father in the "truest sense of the word". While Chopra eventually withdrew the charges amidst ongoing court proceedings, the lawsuit marked the end of Madhubala's years-long relationship with Kumar. According to Madhur Bhushan, Madhubala was deeply hurt by Kumar's testimony and what she perceived as disrespect of her father, although even after the break-up, "she could never forget Dilip saab".

Madhubala reduced her workload during the Naya Daur court case, withdrawing from Sohni Mahiwal and Savera, and declining Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (alongside Dilip Kumar and Nargis) after she was unable to choose between the two lead female roles. Despite her breakup with Kumar, she continued filming Mughal-e-Azam, even as production was intermittently disrupted by tensions between the two actors. During this period, Madhubala also began participating in night shoots—a practice generally discouraged by Ataullah Khan—for Mughal-e-Azam as well as Om Prakash's Gateway of India.

Among her successful releases during this time were Sohrab Modi's costume drama Raj Hath (1956) and Devendra Goel's Ek Saal (1957). Madhubala also received praise for the black comedy Gateway of India (1957), in which she played a young heiress fleeing her greedy uncle while disguised in a single "Chaplinesque" outfit throughout the film. Critic Deepa Gahlot later included Gateway of India in the book Take-2: 50 Films That Deserve a New Audience, citing it as one of Madhubala's finest performances.

Continued success, release of Mughal-e-Azam, and marriage (1958–1960)

1958 proved to be one of the most successful years of Madhubala's career, with four of her releases ranking among the year's highest-grossing films: the crime thrillers Kala Pani and Howrah Bridge, the musical Phagun and the comedy Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi. Both Kala Pani and Howrah Bridge featured her in roles considered atypical of Hindi film heroines of the period. In the former, adapted from A. J. Cronin's novel Beyond This Place, she co-starred with Dev Anand and Nalini Jaywant as a "daredevil" journalist who helps her lover (Anand) clear his father's name. Released in early 1958, the film met with critical and commercial success; Madhubala's performance was praised, though some reviewers considered her overshadowed by Jaywant.

Continuing her work on Mughal-e-Azam through 1958, Madhubala filmed the battle scenes and the musical sequence "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya". She simultaneously worked on Howrah Bridge, a whodunit influenced by Hong Kong films. To help the newcomer director Shakti Samanta, Madhubala waived her fee for the role of Edna, an Anglo-Indian club dancer, opposite Ashok Kumar. Her performance of the seduction song "Aaiye Meherbaan" became particularly popular with audiences. A critic reviewing for The Bombay Chronicle described Madhubala's role as "the highlight of the picture" and considered it her best performance since Mahal. According to a retrospective assesment by Vijay Lokapally, Madhubala "blazed a trail" as Edna, for in later years "almost every heroine had to meet the challenge of equating, if not improving upon her performance".

The production of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi marked the beginning of Madhubala's relationship with co-star Kishore Kumar, who was then separating from his first wife, Ruma Guha Thakurta. The film, stated to be the first "full-fledged mainstream comedy" of Hindi cinema, starred Madhubala as a wealthy young woman who romances Kumar's character. It was one of the biggest box office hits of the 1950s, and its success led to further comedic collaborations between Madhubala and Kumar. Their relationship grew serious by 1959, and reports of a possible marriage attracted considerable media attention. Madhubala and Kumar's differing religious backgrounds led to speculation that Kumar would convert to Islam. In a 1959 interview with Rangbhumi, however, Madhubala stated that neither she nor her partner would require to change their religions for marriage.

Madhubala's health began declining as the filming of Mughal-e-Azam reached its final phase. For the sequences depicting her character's imprisonment, she insisted on wearing real iron chains for authenticity, which resulted in skin abrasions and necessitated intervals of bed rest. The principal photography of Mughal-e-Azam concluded in May 1959, after 500 days of filming over a period of eight years. With an estimated budget of ₹15 million, it was the most expensive Indian production at that point of time.

Health decline and final work (1960–1969)

Madhubala's health continued to deteriorate after marriage. According to her sister Madhur Bhushan, Madhubala frequently vomited blood and suffered from breathlessness that required regular oxygen support. Cardiologist Rustom Jal Vakil offered little hope for her recovery but recommended seeking a senior medical opinion in London. She and Kumar completed Jhumroo in May 1961; the film became a box office success on its release.

Madhubala and Kumar subsequently travelled to London with physician S. V. Golwala in the hope that she could undergo specialized treatment for her heart disease. Doctors there, however, concluded that surgery was too risky. They instead advised her to avoid stress and pregnancy, and estimated that she had only one or two years to live. At the time, surgery for her congenital heart defect was not yet an established treatment. In a 1981 interview, Kumar disclosed that the terminal diagnosis drove Madhubala to depression, and that she attempted suicide during their brief stay in London. "She continued to live another seven and a half years", he said, "but died every moment".

Following their return from London, Madhubala moved into Kumar's flat on Carter Road in Bombay but soon returned to her paternal home. The couple lived separately for the remainder of her life, though Kumar visited her at times. Accounts of their marriage differ: some sources describe Kumar as devoted to her care, while others portray the relationship as increasingly strained by her health problems and his busy professional life.

Many of Madhubala's projects, including Kumar's Suhana Geet and J. K. Nanda's Chalaak, remained incomplete due to her illness; some of these were recast or completed using body doubles. The comedy Half Ticket, which she managed to finish herself, marked her last collaboration with Kumar. The film was moderately successful on its initial release in 1962; it later attained cult popularity through re-releases in the late 1970s. Sharabi, co-starring Dev Anand, was released in 1964 after prolonged delays and became Madhubala's final release during her lifetime. A review in Shankar's Weekly observed that she appeared "a bit jaded", though the critic speculatively attributed this to the "imaginative camerawork".

In June 1966, after a temporary improvement in her condition, Madhubala resumed work on Chalaak, which required only a small amount of filming to be completed. The trade press widely publicized the effort as her "comeback". However, she suffered an episode of vomiting blood on set, forcing the production to be abandoned.

Death

On 21 February 1969, Madhubala's condition deteriorated sharply as she developed a high fever of 105 °F (41 °C) complicated by jaundice. She had a marginal improvement the following afternoon, but her health collapsed entirely by the evening of 22 February. She died at 9:30 a.m. on 23 February, nine days after her 36th birthday.

Madhubala was buried as per Sunni Muslim rites at the Juhu Muslim Cemetery in Santacruz, Bombay. Besides her family and husband, the funeral was attended by several well-known figures of the film industry, including Ashok Kumar, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Raj Kapoor, Prithviraj Kapoor, Sunil Dutt and Prem Nath. Mughal-e-Azam's music composer Naushad said, "Like Anarkali, Madhubala's share of sorrows overwhelmed her joys and alas we did not sympathize with her in life but came to mourn her death."

Madhubala's death received front-page coverage in major Indian newspapers. The Indian Express recalled her as "the most sought-after Hindi film actress" of her era, while Filmfare likened her to "a Cinderella whose clock had struck twelve too soon." Her friend Nadira, who did not attend the funeral, later said, "There are some people you want to remember in all their vivaciousness, smiling, giggling. You just don't want to see them dead. They live forever and ever. She was one of them." In May 1969, Madhubala became the first Indian star whose death was officially mourned by the Pakistani Film Producers' Association.

The swashbuckler film Jwala, which had begun production in 1958 but was repeatedly delayed by Madhubala's illness, was completed after her death using body doubles and released in 1971, marking her final screen appearance. Jwala was also her only film shot entirely in colour.

In 2010, Madhubala's tomb—along with those of other industry figures such as Mohammed Rafi and Sahir Ludhianvi—was demolished to make room for new interments. Her remains were moved to an undisclosed location.

Screen persona and reception

Madhubala was one of the most celebrated Indian actors of the post-independence era, a period referred to by film historians as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema. Her rise to stardom in the early 1950s coincided with the rapid expansion of the Indian film industry, and some international outlets referred to her as the industry's top star. A 1952 feature in Theatre Arts Magazine, written by David Cort, described Madhubala as "the biggest star in the world" in terms of potential audience size, noting that her local reach extended across the 420 million people of India and Pakistan. A 1955 Indian Daily Mail article observed that despite the mixed reception of many of her early films, Madhubala remained a widely publicized figure and had risen to become the "highest-paid star of the East". In the textbook A History of World Civilization (1957), American historian Max Savelle contrasted Madhubala's status as India's highest-paid film star to what he described as the traditional seclusion of women in India.

Contemporaries of Madhubala regarded her beauty to be her defining feature: journalist B. K. Karanjia wrote that "none of her published photographs did full justice to her quite extraordinary beauty", while photographer J. H. Thakker said that "You could photograph her from any angle—without make-up—and still come away with a masterpiece." Editor Baburao Patel famously dubbed her the "Venus of the Indian screen". Scholar Dina Khdair noted that Madhubala achieved particular success in "sexually titillating" genres that emphasized her beauty and physical appeal, citing Mahal (1949), Sangdil (1952), Howrah Bridge (1958), and Mughal-e-Azam (1960) as examples. Retrospective news outlets also associate Madhubala's image with modern fashion trends, including off-shoulder dresses, trousers, and a distinctive wavy hairstyle, in contrast to the more traditional attire commonly worn by Hindi film actresses of the period.

While initially typecast in dramatic roles, Madhubala later successfully expanded into comedies with Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955), becoming one of the earliest leading Hindi film actresses to dabble in the genre. Thereafter, comedy became one of Madhubala's defining strengths; The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema observes that her "most durable reputation rested on musical comedies". Khdair stated that her performances in films such as Mr. & Mrs. '55, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958) and Half Ticket (1962) were indicative of her modern and "Westernized" star image. According to Nandana Bose, by appearing as "both attractive and the star of a film", Madhubala preceded Sridevi as an exception to the usual caricaturization of comediennes in Hindi films.

Legacy

In a 1977 Filmfare profile, Adi Katrak contrasted Madhubala with many earlier Hindi film actresses, writing, "Till Madhubala came most of the heroines were owly-eyed, weepy faced and had a cranky, theatrical style of acting. This girl with her infectious laughter, the twinkle in her eye and a bubbling personality was like a ray of sunshine." According to The Hundred Luminaries of Hindi Cinema (1996), Madhubala's "sultry glamour" combined with her comedic talents made her "the quintessence of a movie star". BFI's Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema (1999) noted that, unlike many of her contemporaries who moved into character roles with age, Madhubala's early death preserved her in public memory as "the greatest and most glamorous star of the 50s Hindi musical".

While Madhubala's popularity declined in the decade following her death, it revived in the 1980s with the spread of television broadcasts and home video, introducing her films to a new generation of viewers. From the mid-1990s, several biographies have been published on Madhubala. Her image continues to have commercial value, with sustained demand for her photographs, merchandise, and film memorabilia in India and abroad. The traditional Anarkali costumes and contemporary fashion styles she wore onscreen have influenced Indian fashion, and media outlets have described her as a fashion icon. She is remembered both as a major star of classical Hindi cinema and for her personal relationships, health problems, and early death. Madhubala has frequently been compared with Marilyn Monroe because of perceived parallels in their careers and public images, as well as their deaths at the age of 36.

Madhubala's image remains primarily associated with her looks: according to Urmila Lanba, her name has become "synonymous" with beauty in India, while authors Khatija Akbar and Mrinal Pande note the continued emulation of her distinctive appearance by Bollywood actresses. At the same time, some of her co-stars including Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor argued that her looks deflected attention away from her acting talents. Kumar said in 1990 that the audiences' preoccupation with her beauty led to them "miss[ing] out on a lot of her other attributes ... As an actress, her greatest asset was her spontaneity." Veteran actress Devika Rani lamented that while Madhubala's looks were justly praised, her talents were "far superior" and remained underutilized.

Later critics have reassessed Madhubala's work. M. L. Dhawan of The Tribune argues that Madhubala could convey her character's inner emotions with subtlety and "communicate more with her delicately raised eyebrows than most performers could with a raised voice." Dinesh Raheja describes her as a "mature" and "intuitive" performer who succeeded across a variety of roles, while Debiparna Chakraborty of Outlook India observes that "Madhubala's performance style was marked by responsiveness ... an ability to react in real time to co-actors, to shift tone within a scene and to use silence as deliberately as dialogue" and that "Her comedic instinct remains one of the most underappreciated aspects of her work."

Honours and commemorations

Madhubala's legacy has received national and international recognition. The Greek song "Mantoubala", named after her, was performed during the closing ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In India, she was commemorated with a postage stamp issued by India Post in 2008; at the time, Nargis was the only other Indian actress to have received a similar honour. A wax sculpture of Madhubala, modeled on her appearance as Anarkali in Mughal-e-Azam (1960), was unveiled at Madame Tussauds Delhi in 2017. The following year, The New York Times published an obituary for her as part of its "Overlooked" project. On 14 February 2019, the search engine Google marked her 86th birth anniversary with a dedicated Doodle.

In popular culture

Madhubala has been referenced and portrayed in several works of popular culture. She was portrayed by Sona Mastan Mirza in Meena Kumari Ki Amar Kahani (1979). Her image appears in the opening credits of Rangeela (1995) alongside those of Dev Anand and Amitabh Bachchan. The title of the Bengali film Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala (2007) alludes to her, while Mallika Sherawat parodied her dance performance from Mughal-e-Azam in Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam (2008). Madhubala's life inspired the character played by Kangana Ranaut in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010). In Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011), the song "Madhubala", written by Irshad Kamil and picturized on Katrina Kaif, pays tribute to the actress. Payal Kapadia's documentary film A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021) features a scene in which students celebrate Madhubala's birthday by singing a song from Mughal-e-Azam; film scholar Debashree Mukherjee described the sequence as "a celebration of Madhubala's life, and of cinema itself."

In the early 2020s, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali was attempting a biographical film on Madhubala, but shut down the production due to opposition from her family. Her sister Madhur Bhushan announced plans to write a biography and produce a biopic based on her life in 2020. Variety India reported in April 2026 that Sanjay Leela Bhansali was producing a biopic directed by Jasmeet K. Reen, with Sara Arjun cast as Madhubala.