Nimmi - Rise To Stardom

Rise To Stardom

After Barsaat Nimmi never looked back and was flooded with films offers. She quietly polished her histrionic abilities and developed a mannered but effectively unique style of acting. The diminutive actress quickly won a loyal fan base with her intense and expressive performances.

She worked with top heroes like Raj Kapoor (Banwara), and Dev Anand (Sazaa, Aandhiyan). To her great advantage Nimmi formed a very popular and dependable screen pair with Dilip Kumar, after the success of films like Deedar (1951) and Daag (1952). Aside from Nargis with whom she co-starred with in Barsaat and Deedar, Nimmi also appeared alongside many notable leading ladies including Madhubala (Amar), Suraiya (Shamma), Geeta Bali (Usha Kiran), and Meena Kumari (Char Dil Char Rahen).

A little known fact is that Nimmi was also a singer and sang her own songs in the film Bedardi (1951) in which she also acted. However, she never continued singing and recorded songs only for this film.

Mehboob Khan was next to cast her in his film Aan (1952). This prestigious production was to be India's first full feature in Technicolor. The film was made with an extremely large budget. Nimmi played one of the female leads. The film also co-starred Dilip Kumar, Prem Nath and introduced Nadira. Such was Nimmi's popularity at this point that when a first edit of the film was shown to the film's financiers and distributors, they complained that Nimmi's character died too early. Therefore an extended dream sequence was added to give Nimmi more prominence and screen time in the film. Nimmi's character and her on-screen death dance in Aan were very popular with audiences.

Aan was one of the first Indian movies to have a world wide release. The film had an extremely lavish London premiere which Nimmi attended. The English version was entitled Savage Princess. On the London trip, Nimmi met many western film personalities including Errol Flynn. When Flynn attempted to kiss her hand she pulled it away, exclaiming, "I am an Indian girl, you cannot do that!" The incident made the headlines and the press raved about Nimmi as the "...unkissed girl of India".

After the great box-office success of Aan, Mehboob Khan asked her to appear in his next film Amar (1954). Nimmi played a poor, milk maid seduced by a lawyer (Dilip Kumar). The film also starred Madhubala as Kumar's wronged fiance. Its controversial subject of rape was way ahead of its time and although the film was not a commercial success, Nimmi's intense performance and the film were applauded by critics. It remained the favorite film of Mehboob Khan amongst his own productions.

Nimmi also turned producer with the popular film Danka (1954) which was released under her own production banner, and she gave a striking and off beat performance.

Kundan (1955), produced by Sohrab Modi co-starring newcomer Sunil Dutt, gave Nimmi a memorable double role as mother and daughter. Her sensitive portrayal earned her further recognition as a talented and spirited actress.

In Uran Khatola (1955), her last of five films with Dilip Kumar, she starred in one of the biggest box-office successes of her career. The films songs have remained popular to the present day.

Nimmi next had two big successes in 1956 with Basant Bahar and Bhai Bhai. In 1957, at the age of 24, Nimmi received the critic's award for best actress for her role in Bhai Bhai. These films were also notable for her songs which were dubbed by Lata Mangeshkar. Nimmi was fortunate throughout her career to have some of the most popular and enduring songs picturised on her, and appeared in films with exceptional music scores.

By this point, with a largely consistent run of success at the box-office, Nimmi had firmly established herself as one of the most bankable and popular leading ladies in Hindi cinema.