Nargis Dutt was born on June 1, 1929, known by her screen name, Nargis, was an Indian film actress. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Hindi cinema. She made her first film appearance in the 1935 Talashe Haq when she was six years old, credited as “Baby Nargis”. Nargis, her stage name, means “Narcissus”, the flower. She was subsequently credited as Nargis in all of her films. She became the first patron of The Spastics Society of India. Her charitable work for the organisation got her recognition as a social worker
Nargis appeared in numerous movies after her film debut; she won lasting fame for her later, adult, roles, starting with at the age of 14, in Mehboob Khan’s Taqdeer in 1943 opposite, Motilal. She starred in many popular Hindi-Urdu movies of the late 1940s and 1950s such as Barsaat 1949, Andaz in 1949, Awaara in 1951, Deedar in 1951, Shree 420 1955, and Chori in 1956. In most of her films she starred alongside Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar.
One of her best-known roles was that of Radha in the Academy Award-nominated Mother India in the year 1957, a performance that won her Best Actress trophies at the Filmfare Awards and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Nargis married her Mother India co-star in 1958, actor Sunil Dutt, and left the film industry.Nargis would appear infrequently in films during the 60s. Some of her films of this period include the drama Raat Aur Din 1967, for which she got the inaugural National Film Award for Best Actress.
Nargis formed the Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe, which roped in several leading actors and singers of the time and held stage shows at border areas. In early 1970s, she became the first patron of Spastics Society of India, and her subsequent work with the organisation brought her recognition as a social worker, and later a Rajya Sabha nomination in 1980.Nargis died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer, a few days before her son Sanjay Dutt made his film debut in Bollywood. In 1982, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was established in her memory. Priya became a politician, and since 2005 has been a Member of Parliament.
Awards:
Received Filmfare Best Actress Award, Mother India in 1957.
Best Actress at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Mother India in1958.
Padma Shri – first film personality to be conferred the award in 1958.
National Film Award for Best Actress, Raat Aur Din in 1968.
Nargis Dutt was the recipient of the “Urvashy Award”, the highest honour that can be conferred on a movie actress in India. On January 8, 2001, Amitabh Bachchan and Nargis Dutt were honoured with the “Best Artists of the Millennium” award by Hero Honda and file magazine “Stardust”.