Nimmi

Nimmi Biography

Nimmi was one of the graceful ladies of Bollywood's 'Golden Era' of the 1950s. She was one of the top stars till early 1960’s. Apart from village girl roles, she also appeared in modern roles and is regarded as one of the earliest female stars of Bollywood. Her expressive eyes with an underlying eroticism made her an audience’s favourite. Apart from Aan, Barsaat (1949), Aandhiyan (1952), Basant Bahar (1956), Sazaa (1951), Sohni Mahiwal (1958), Deedar (1951), Daag (1952), Kundan (1955), Uran Khatola (1955), Bhai-Bhai (1956) and Amar (1954) are her popular works.

‘Aan’ was one of the first Indian movies to have a world wide release and Nimmi was its heroine. She was given the title, “The unkissed girl of India" by media of UK, when she pulled away her hand from noted personality, Errol Flynn exclaiming, "I am an Indian girl, you cannot do that!" This incident following the international release of Aan in London made big headlines in those days. Her masterpiece work ‘Love & God’ directed by Asif was released by his widow in 1986, in incomplete form.

Her real name is Nawab Banoo, born in Agra to a singer-actress Wahidan. They had good relationship with Mehboob Khan and his family. But she lost her mother at the age of 9. After Indian partition, she stayed with her grandmother in Mumbai, who was once a leading actress. Seeing her interest in movies, Mehmood Khan invited her to his studio when the movie, Andaz was shot. In the sets, she met Raj Kapoor, the hero of the movie who offered her second lead role in Barsaat (1949), which she accepted. Nimmi played the role of an innocent mountain shepherdess, and was casted opposite Premnath. Though she played second lead, the evergreen songs like Barsaat mein hum se mile tum, Jeeya bekarar hai, hawa me udta jaaye mora lal dupatta malmal ka and Patli kamar hai were all picturised on Nimmi. Her role too was noticed and thus she placed herself among the noted actress during the period. She became a star overnight.

Though she had a bright career throughout 1950’s, her career map started declining with late 1950’s. Her much anticipated project, ‘Love & God’ also got shelved with director’s death. She declined many movies like Sadhna, and Woh Kaun Thi?  and opted for Rajendra Kumar’s sister’s role, though she was offered the lead role. With early 1960’s she had to face strong competitions from a set of new young actresses too. Nimmi was married to film director and screen writer S. Ali Raza, nephew of Aghajani Kashmeri. Though in the early 1990’s, some sources claimed that actress Kimi Katkar is her daughter, due to her striking face similarity, it didn’t get enough proofs.

On 25 March 2020, she died at age 87.

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Updated: March 28, 2020