Nargis is one of the best actresses that India has ever seen. You will fall short of words to praise her because she was one of the Titans of Indian cinema. Named Fatima upon birth, Nargis debuted in Hindi cinema at the age of 6, and was credited in her first film, Talashe Haq, as Nargis. Since then, the name stayed with her. Her first role as an adult was in Mehboob Khan’s Taqdeer in 1943. She met Sunil Dutt while filming Mehboob Khan’s Mother India and Cupid struck. Like in a movie, Sunil Dutt saved her from a fire that broke out on the sets of the film and won her heart. Legend has it that she visited him everyday at the hospital and when he proposed marriage to her, she immediately said yes.

Did you know Nargis was the first actress to win a National Award? She took home the appreciation for her act in Raat Aur Din. Many from the current generation might not have been fortunate enough to watch her movies and thus, we request them to do so because there has never been a more charismatic woman on our silver screen. We have compiled a few unseen pictures of the actress for you. Check them out here…

Her performance as Radha in the Academy Award-nominated Mother India (1957) won her the Best Actress trophy at the Filmfare Awards. In 1958, Nargis married Sunil Dutt and left the film industry. She would appear infrequently in films during the 1960s.

Nargis died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer, a few days before her son Sanjay Dutt made his Bollywood debut. In 1982, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was established.

On her 90th birth anniversary, you must watch a few films of the legendary Nargis to know why the Hindi film industry misses her so dearly…