The first announcer of Akashvani Lucknow, Farrukh Jaffer has been associated with Indian radio, television, and movies for over five decades. Starting her career with radio in 1963, Farrukh was born in a family of feudal lords in Jaunpur. She married Syed Muhammad Jaffer, who was a freedom fighter and journalist, after which she moved to Lucknow, where she graduated from the Lucknow University, following which she took up the job of an announcer at All India Radio. At AIR, she wrote plays and enacted the roles on air on a segment called Geeton Bhari Kahani. She then moved to Delhi after her husband started working as a correspondent for Chicago Daily News and The Washington Post. This is where her love for drama grew and she then attended workshops held by one of NSD`s most popular and most influential directors Ebrahim Alkazi.
Making her silver screen debut, Farrukh was seen playing the role of Rekha`s mother in the 1981 musical drama Umrao Jaan. After almost two decades, she was cast in Ashutosh Gowariker`s 2004 drama Swades, where she portrayed the role of Fatima Bi. She soon referred to as Amma after her performance in Kiran Rao`s Peepli Live (2010), where she played the role of Mrs. Manikpuri/Amma, which continues to remain one of her most memorable performances. In 2013, she again played the role of Ammaa in Ammaa Ki Boli, after which she went on to be a part of movies such as Barefoot to Goa (2015), Parched (2016), Sultan (2016), Secret Superstar (2017) and more recently, the romantic comedy-drama Photograph (2019).