Meet the actress who was a national swimming champion, and beauty queen who quit films after debut.
Many Bollywood actresses like Namrata Shirodkar, Bhagyashree, and others quit the film industry at the peak of their careers and got married. One such actress who was a beauty queen, national swimming champion, worked with superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, and more, however, she quit the film industry at the peak of her career to get married.
The actress we are talking about belongs to a Muslim family and revolted to get married to a Sikh boy. Her mother-in-law refused to accept her after marriage and she was forced to live at her husband's friend's house. She is none other than Nafisa Ali.
Nafisa Ali was the national swimming champion from 1972 to 1974 and in 1976, she won the Femina Miss India title, represented India at the Miss International contest & was declared the 2nd runner-up. Nafisa started her Bollywood career with the movie Junoon alongside Shashi Kapoor in 1979.
Thereafter, the actress was seen in several Bollywood films like Major Sahab alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Bewafaa which also starred Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, and others, and Life In A...Metro and Yamla Pagla Deewana with Dharmendra.
However, after her debut film, Junoon, Nafisa Ali quit films due to the pressure of her father. Talking about the same, she said in an interview, “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, soon after that, in 1980, the actress got married to Colonel and polo player RS Sodhi. Despite stiff opposition from their families, the couple had a registered marriage in Kolkata followed by a Sikh one at the residence of Maharani Gayatri Devi in Delhi. Nafisa was not accepted by her mother-in-law, due to which she was forced to stay at her husband’s friend’s house. But after some time, the elder brother of her mother-in-law came and pleaded with her to go home and also apologized to Nafisa.
After a hiatus of 16 years, Nafisa finally made her comeback to films with Amitabh Bachchan’s Major Sahab and then worked in several Bollywood films. In 2004, she contested Lok Sabha elections from south Kolkata but was unsuccessful. However, she joined the All India Trinamool Congress in October 2021 ahead of the 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly election.
Nafisa Ali was last seen in the movie Uunchai which also starred Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani, Parineeti Chopra and Neena Gupta. However, the film failed to perform well at the box office.
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 "Ex-beauty queen who quit films to get married")
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