Nafisa Ali

Nafisa Ali (born 18 January 1957) is an Indian actress and a Politician from Indian National Congress and a social activist.

Nafisa
Nafisa Ali at the premiere of the film Lahore
Born (1957-01-18) 18 January 1957
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Other namesNafisa Ali Sodhi
OccupationActress, model, Politician
Years active1979–present
Political partyIndian National Congress
Websitewww.nafisaali.com

Early life

Nafisa Ali was born in Kolkata, the daughter of Ahmed Ali, a Bengali Muslim man and Philomena Torresan, a Roman Catholic woman of Anglo-Indian heritage. Nafisa's paternal grandfather, S. Wajid Ali, was a prominent Bengali writer. Her paternal aunt (father's sister) was Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, a Pakistani journalist and feminist. Nafisa is also related to the decorated Bangladeshi freedom fighter and soldier Bir Pratik Akhtar Ahmed.[1] Nafisa's mother is now settled in Australia.[2]

Nafisa went to Sr. Cambridge from La Martiniere Calcutta.[3] She has also studied Vedanta taught by Swami Chinmayananda, who started the center Chinmaya Mission of World Understanding.

Her husband is the renowned polo player and Arjuna awardee, retired Col R.S. Sodhi. After marriage, she chose to stop working and focus on her three children: daughters Armana, Pia and son Ajit.[2] After a break of 18 years she returned to the film industry.

Career

Nafisa Ali has accomplishments in several fields. She was the national swimming champion from 1972–1974. In 1976, she won the Femina Miss India title, represented India at the Miss International contest & was declared the 2nd runner-up. Ali was also a jockey at the Calcutta Gymkhana in 1979.

Acting career

She has acted in several Bollywood films, the notable ones being Junoon (1978) with Shashi Kapoor, Major Saab with Amitabh Bachchan (1998), Bewafaa (2005), Life In A... Metro (2007) and Yamla Pagla Deewana (2010) with Dharmendra.

She has also acted in a Malayalam film called Big B (2007) with Mammootty, and is associated with Action India, an organisation working to spread AIDS awareness.

Political career

Nafisa Ali contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully from South Kolkata. On 5 April 2009, she contested the Lok Sabha election from Lucknow on the Samajwadi Party ticket after Sanjay Dutt's disqualification by the Supreme Court on the basis of a prior conviction. She then rejoined the Indian National Congress party in November 2009 and said she is returning to Congress for life.[4]

Personal life

She is married to Colonel Sodhi a polo player who won the Arjuna Award.[3]

In September 2005, she was appointed the chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI).

In November 2018, Ali was diagnosed with stage 3 peritoneal and ovarian cancer.[5]

Filmography
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Lage Raho Munna Bhai ( 2006 ) BIG B(2007) as mary teacher

See also
  • List of Indian women athletes page

References
  1. "Major Akhter: Salute and an embrace from our heart". The Opinion Pages. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  2. "Rival has no clue about Nafisa's secret weapon". Archived from the original on 6 April 2010.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Actress Nafisa Ali diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer; Here is what you should know". Times of India. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.