Mandakini was born in Meerut as Yasmeen Joseph to a British father and a Kashmiri mother.

[citation needed] At the young age of 16, she was discovered by film director Raj Kapoor and given the screen name "Mandakini".

[1] Mandakini got her first movie in the Hindi film industry when she was cast in the lead role in the 1985 movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili by film producer-director Raj Kapoor opposite his youngest son Rajiv Kapoor.

[5] Mandakini married a former Buddhist monk, Dr. Kagyur T. Rinpoche Thakur, and embraced Buddhism.

[6] Her husband had gained fame in childhood as the baby featured in Murphy Radio advertisements in the 1970s and 1980s.