Nanda (actress) life and biography

Nanda is an Indian film actress of Hindi films.
Nanda was born in a show-business family to Vinayak Damodar Karnataki, a successful Marathi actor-director and Marathi actress, Meenakshi Shirodkar (Bramhachari-Bikini girl in Bramhachari and Shamachi Aai fame). Minakshi's granddaughters are actresses Namrata Shirodkar and Shilpa Shirodkar. Shirodkars belong to Gomantak Maratha Samaj or Nutan Maratha Samaj. Her father died when Nanda was a child. The family faced hard times. She became a child artiste and helped her family by working in films like Jaggu in the early 50's. She was tutored at home by renowned school-teacher and Bombay Scouts Commissioner, Gokuldas V. Makhi.
Nanda's paternal uncle V. Shantaram gave Nanda a big break by casting her in a successful brother-sister saga Toofan Aur Diya (1956). She received her first Filmfare Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for "Bhabhi" (1957), but she claims that the reason she didn't win was because there was lobbying involved. She then played supporting roles like sister to stars like Dev Anand in Kala Bazaar, and did small roles in big films like Dhool Ka Phool.
She played the title role in L.V. Prasad's Chhoti Bahen (1959) and the movie was a big hit, making her a star. She then played lead roles, such as one of Dev Anand's heroines in Hum Dono (1961). She was the heroine in B R Chopra's Kanoon (1960), a film that was very unusual back then, because it had no songs. She won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for "Anchal (film)" (1960).
She starred with Shashi Kapoor in a lot of films while he was a newcomer, but they were not successful. But they later had a super hit with Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965). In this film Nanda played a westernised role for the first time and it helped her image. Her favorite song that was famously picturized on her in the film was "Yeh Samaa." (Shashi Kapoor would later declare that Nanda was his favorite heroine. Also, Nanda too, declared Shashi Kapoor as her favourite hero.) She also had a second hit film in 1965 with Gumnaam, which helped put her in the top league of heroines. She would continue to play heroine roles throughout the 1960s and signed with new leading men, such as Rajesh Khanna in the songless suspense thriller Ittefaq (1969) for which she received a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. After Khanna became a star, he signed two more films with her, the thriller The Train (Hindi film) (1969) and a comedy Joroo Ka Ghulam (1972).
After a small role in Manoj Kumar's Shor (1972),Nanda did few more films such as Chhalia (1973), Naya Nasha (1974), then stopped appearing in films. In 1982, she came back in three films, all coincidentally playing heroine Padmini Kolhapure's mother in Ahista Ahista (1981 film), Mazdoor and Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog. Then she permanently retired from acting.
She has been close friends with actress Waheeda Rehman, ever since they co-starred in Kaala Bazaar. In 1965, when she was filming Jab Jab Phool Khile, director Suraj Prakash recalled that a very handsome Maharashtrian Lieutenant Colonel had been smitten by Nanda and had asked him to forward his marriage proposal to her mother, but in the end, nothing came of it. Nanda's brothers also brought home many suitors for her, but she turned them down. In 1992, a middle-aged Nanda became engaged to director Manmohan Desai at the urging of her best friend actress Waheeda Rehman. But he committed suicide in 1994 by jumping from the building in Girgaon that he owned, just a year after her mother died of cancer, and Nanda has remained unmarried.
Today, Nanda lives in her residence in Mumbai interacting only with family and close friends, such as Saira Banu. After a long time she made a public appearance with Waheeda Rehman for screening of Marathi film Natarang.

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