Meet actress who won the Femina Miss India title, represented India at the Miss International contest, and was declared the 2nd runner-up. With grit and determination, she made her way into Bollywood.
Beauty pageants such as Miss India, Miss International, and others have always proven to be gateways for women to enter the showbiz industry. Several Bollywood actresses, including Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen, Manushi Chhillar, and other pageant titleholders, have paved their way into Bollywood. Similarly, the actress we are talking about today has a similar journey. She won the Femina Miss India title, represented India at the Miss International contest, and was declared the 2nd runner-up. With grit and determination, she made her way into Bollywood.
The actress in discussion is someone who has shared the screen with names like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, and others. She belonged to a Muslim family but fell in love with a Sikh man and later rebelled to marry him. She is Nafisa Ali. After her marriage, Nafisa’s mother-in-law initially refused to accept the relationship, and as a result, Nafisa had to spend many days at her husband’s friend’s house.
The iconic actress turned heads with her beauty in the early 70s. Nafisa has appeared in numerous Bollywood films, including notable titles like Junoon (1979) alongside Shashi Kapoor, Major Saab (1998) with Amitabh Bachchan, Bewafaa (2005), Life In A… Metro (2007), and Yamla Pagla Deewana (2010) with Dharmendra. She also acted in the Malayalam film Big B (2007) with Mammootty.
Did you know that after her debut, Nafisa left Bollywood due to the pressure from her parents? Reflecting on this in an interview, Nafisa said, “I was just remembering myself at that stage of my life. When I was young and the film Junoon was made, it was such a huge success and I had so many offers. I remember I had no family support; I was alone in Bombay trying to find work. My father told me girls in our family don’t work in the cinema. I gave in to that pressure.”
However, after a 14-year gap, Nafisa returned to the big screen with the film Kshatriya, released in 1993.
Later in 2018, Nafisa was diagnosed with stage 3 peritoneal and ovarian cancer. This was the same year she quit Bollywood forever.
