On June 15, 1936 a film called College Girl was being shown in Moti Mahal Talkie, Sultan Bazaar, Hyderabad. As was customary, purdah ladies from the high society were watching it from the wooden balcony. Suddenly around 9:15 pm, a fire broke out. There was heat, smoke and panic everywhere. At first it was reported that 20 people had died, but later it was confirmed that 11 women and three children had died. One of the most amazing thing was that one of the ladies took off her Sari, tied it to one of the balcony pillars and lowered about 40 ladies one by one. Unfortunately all could not be saved because many had jumped from the balcony. She was Ashraf-un-Nisa Begum, the elderly wife of a retired Indian Army officer. For this act of bravery, she was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal of the British Empire by the British Government in 1937.
This is the story of that tragedy as told through contemporary newspapers of the world.