Laila Rasheed

Laila Rasheed, also reported as Laila Beegum, the eldest daughter of Malayalam cinema legend Prem Nazir, died on the evening of 7 October 2026 in Kozhikode, Kerala, at the age of 76. She had been receiving treatment at a private hospital after a heart attack and died around 7:30 p.m. She had been living at a residence called Sojith in Parayancheri. Funeral arrangements pointed to burial at Korakkodu Juma Masjid in Mangalam, Thiruvananthapuram.

Born on 24 August 1950 in Chirayinkeezhu, in what was then the princely state of Travancore, she was the eldest child of the actor born Chirayinkil Abdul Kader and known across Kerala as Prem Nazir, the evergreen hero of Malayalam cinema. She attended Kodikkakam Government LP School in Chirayinkeezhu, Madras Presidency School, St. Roch's Convent in Thiruvananthapuram and Kunthalloor Government High School. In 1956 her father built a house at Kunthalloor in Chirayinkeezhu that he named Laila Cottage in her honour. The house remained one of the best-known private landmarks associated with Prem Nazir for decades afterward, and her name was therefore written into the family's public history from childhood.

She did not pursue a screen career of her own. Her main published work was the memoir Ithile Poyathu Vasantham, which recorded memories of her father and offered readers a family-side account of the actor's life away from Udaya and Merryland Studios. Through that book, and through continuing public interest in Laila Cottage, she remained part of how Malayalam audiences remembered Prem Nazir off screen. Prem Nazir's filmography included more than five hundred films as a leading man, and her quiet stewardship of his memory gave journalists a human link whenever obituaries and anniversary features returned to his career.

She married E.A. Rasheed, who served as a Superintending Engineer in Kerala's Public Works Department and who predeceased her. Their children are Sajith Khan, an architect based in Australia, and Soja, who lives in Coimbatore. Contemporary reports also named her son-in-law V. Noushad and daughter-in-law Nasreen. Kerala Kaumudi, UNI, The Times of India, Manorama News and other Malayalam outlets reported her death. Accounts agreed that she died under hospital care in Kozhikode after a heart attack; some coverage also framed the final illness in broader age-related terms. She was not a film star in her own right, but her life kept public attention as the eldest daughter named on the family cottage and as a keeper of Prem Nazir's private story.