Riaz Shahid

Riaz Shahid (1927 - October 1, 1972) was a noted Pakistani filmmaker, movie writer, and journalist. His real name was Sheikh Riaz, but was called by his nickname Shahid. Riaz was from Lahore where he started his career as a journalist for newspaper Chataan and later joined Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Lail-o-Nihar. He also wrote a novel named Hazar Dastaan.

In 1962, Riaz started his movie career as a director for the movie Susraal. From this point onwards, he went on to direct several hits like Zarqa, Shaheed, Farangi, and Yeh Aman.

Riaz Shahid was married to then famous actress Neelo and had three children. The first child their daughter was named Zarqa followed by two sons Shaan, who is now a well known Pakistani movie actor and Sarosh, who also worked in a couple of Pakistani movies.

Riaz died of leukemia in 1972.