Nandini Karnataki (8 January 1939 – 25 March 2014),[1] known mononymously as Nanda, was an Indian actress who appeared in Hindi and Marathi films.
As a result of her involvement in movies, her studies suffered, and she was coached at home by renowned school teacher and Bombay Scouts commissioner, Gokuldas V. Makhi.
[citation needed] One of her brothers is Marathi film director Jaiprakash Karnataki who is married to actress Jayshree T.[7] Nanda made her debut with Mandir in 1948.
It was the saga of an orphaned brother and sister that are buffeted by a series of tragic setbacks, including the girl losing her sight.
She received her first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for Bhabhi (1957), she claimed that the reason she did not win was that there was lobbying involved.
She was paired with Raj Kapoor in Aashiq (1962) and she worked with Rajendra Kumar in three films – Toofan Aur Diya (1956), Dhool Ka Phool (1961) and Kanoon (1960).
She had quoted in one of her interviews: "Many of my great performances were in films that failed or did average business, like Usne Kaha Tha, Char Diwari, Nartaki, and Aaj Aur Kal.
In the early 1970s, Nanda suggested Rajendra Kumar, co-producer of The Train, to take Rajesh Khanna as the main lead.
She signed with new leading man Rajesh Khanna in the songless suspense thriller Ittefaq (1969), for which she received her first and only nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress and also proved to be successful at the box office.
[17] After a small role in Manoj Kumar's Shor (1972), Nanda did a few more critically acclaimed films such as Chhalia (1973) and Naya Nasha (1974), which flopped.
Work offers for Nanda dried up from 1973 as her pairing with other younger actors such as Navin Nischol, Vinod Mehra, Deb Mukherjee and Parikshit Sahni did not work.,[13] and she then stopped acting.
In the early 1980's, she had a career comeback with three successful films, all coincidentally having her play Padmini Kolhapure's mother in Ahista Ahista (1981), Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog (1982), and Mazdoor (1983), receiving two nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for the first two films, post which she permanently retired.
Her close friends from the film industry included Waheeda Rehman, Nargis, Asha Parekh, Helen, Saira Banu, Mala Sinha, Sadhana, Shakila and Jabeen Jaleel.