Casting Calls

O

n 5 September 1946, Jer Bulsara gave birth to a

handsome baby boy in Zanzibar, an African Island

situated just off the coast of mainland Tanzania.

Farrokh Bulsara was the first of two children born to Jer and her

husband Bomi, who was a civil servant working for the British

government. Living a fairly restricted childhood, Farrokh stated

years later, ‘I was a very insecure young boy, probably because I

was a bit sheltered.’

Raised a Zoroastrian, a devotee of a philosophical religion

based upon the idea of one true Creator, Farrokh (also known as

Freddie) grew up alongside sister Kashmira, and the two of them,

along with their parents, moved to India when he was just seven

years old. They were later educated at an English boarding school

near Bombay, and finally moved to England when Freddie was

seventeen, as a result of the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution.