Late Bollywood actor Nawab Bano, better known by her stage name Nimmi, impressed one and all with her terrific acting back in the 1950s and 60s. It’s said that Nawab Bano was given the name Nimmi by Raj Kapoor. Born on February 18, 1933, in Agra, Nimmi was also referred to as the “sacrificing queen of the silver screen” for the kind of characters she played in her films.
The veteran actor breathed her last on March 25, 2020. It’s her birth anniversary today and on this occasion let’s look at an event from her life that gave her another interesting sobriquet.
Nimmi’s film Aan premiered in Rialto Theatre in London, in 1952, and on the occasion, director Mehboob Khan, his wife and Nimmi were present there. Several foreign stars, including Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn, were also among the attendees at the premiere. As per his tradition, Errol tried to kiss Nimmi’s hand.
However, Nimmi quickly backed off and said that she was an Indian girl and it wasn’t her culture. The next day’s newspapers carried several headlines, but the one that became famous was, “The Unkissed girl of India”.
Nimmi started her career with Raj Kapoor’s film Barsaat, and there was no looking back after that. Another thing quite famous about Nimmi was that she would say yes to a film only after carefully understanding the story and her character. The makers would wait for her go-ahead for days.
The fact that actors like Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were were her fans speaks volumes of what Nimmi brought to a film in her time.
And apart from acting, Nimmi was a brilliant singer too. Some of her hit films include Kundan, Udan Khatola, Bhai Bhai and Basant Bahar.
