Wearing a bikini on screen in an Indian film is no longer a taboo thing to do. Over the last few years, it has stopped even being noteworthy, with even A-listers like Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and Deepika Padukone donning swimsuits for various films. But a few decades ago, it wasn’t all that common. And while the likes of Sharmila Tagore and Zeenat Aman are credited for normalising it, they were far from the first to do it.
The first Indian actress to wear a bikini in film was...
In 1938, the first decade of talkies in Indian cinema, a Marathi film titled Brahmachari pushed the boundaries on what was considered acceptable on screen, when the film’s lead actress wore a swimsuit. Meenakshi Shirodkar was the actress and she did so in a song called Yamuna Jali Khelu Khel. The part-comedy, part-seduction song sequence featured Meenakshi, dressed in a swimsuit, serenading the film’s hero, played by Master Vinayak. As per a Filmfare report, audiences were shocked at the scene, considered quite bold and ahead of its times. In Hindi cinema, Nalini Jaywant became the first actress to wear a bikini, a feat she achieved in the 1950 film Sangram.
Meenakshi Shirodkar’s link with two Bollywood stars of 90s
As the name suggests, Meenakshi was related to Bollywood actresses Namrata and Shilpa Shirodkar. Born Ratan Pednekar in 1916, Meenakshi married Dr Shirodkar at the age of 19. It was after her marriage that she began her film career with the new screen name Meenakshi. Brahmachari was her debut. The actress had a son. His two daughters were Shilpa and Namrata. Shilpa Shirodkar worked in films like Khuda Gawah while her sister Namrata worked in hits like Vaastav. Namrata was also a Miss India finalist, and is currently married to Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu.
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 "Meenakshi Shirodkar (Image: screengrab)")
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