Action films did not begin in India till the 1930s. While Hollywood and British cinema has swashbucklers and early Westerns in the 1920s, Indian cinema was still deeply rooted in local cultures. The concept of action films only began with the so-called stunt films at the turn of the decade. And among the first names who attained success in action cinema was not even an Indian, or even a man.
Bollywood’s first action star – Fearless Nadia
In 1935, JBH Wadia, the founder of Wadia Movietone, released the action potboiler Hunterwali. It starred an Australian actress settled in India named Mary Ann Evans. Mary had taken on the screen name Nadia, and was billed in the film as Fearless Nadia. The film, with its extravagant action sequences, and Nadia’s screen presence, was a superhit and attained a silver jubilee. Thus began Nadia’s career as a stunt heroine and for the next decade or so, she was the biggest action star in India, appearing in hits like Diamond Queen (1940), Jungle Princess (1942), Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943), and Dhoomketu (1949).
How Mary Ann Evans became Fearless Nadia
Nadia was born in Perth in 1908. Her father, a volunteer in British Army, was stationed in India the following year and Nadia moved to India in 1913. Following her father’s death in 1915, she moved to Peshawar where young Mary learnt horseback riding, hunting, gymnastics, and shooting. In the 1920s, she returned to Bombay as a teenager and learnt ballet there. Mary began working as a theatre artiste in her early 20s before trying her hand at a small role in JBH Wadia’s film Desh Deepak. Her minor roles were so well received that Wadia – and his brother Homi – decided to launch her as a leading actress, which they did with Hunterwali.
The story behind her screen name comes from what an Armenian fortune teller had once told her – that she would find great fame but only if she chose a name starting with N. She chose Nadia because it sounded ‘exotic’, the actress told an interviewer decades later.
Nadia’s dangerous stunts with lions and rapids
Nadia’s films worked because of her ability to combine showmanship with real danger. She was known to perform her own stunts and as she was an expert in swordfighting, riding, and even dance, she was perfect for the screen. In the 1942 film Jungle Princess, she was asked to do a scene with two actual lions and the actress did it. In a subsequent interview with Girish Karnad, Nadia recalled, “In Jungle Princess. I had to do a scene with a lion. Of course, I refused. ‘I am not going anywhere near a lion,’ I said. But Homi calmly said ‘Let’s see what happens’ and stepped into the cage of lions at the circus. Then a slim little circus girl arrived, walked into the cage, and gave milk to the lions in a bowl. I said ‘O.K. I’ll do it’.”
Her director and later husband Homi Wadia said the most dangerous stunt he ever saw her perform was for Diamond Queen, where she floated down the rapid currents near Wilson Dam, through dangerous boulders, and was almost swept away by the dangerous current.
Nadia’s later career
Nadia continued to act in action films in the 50s too but with limited success. In 1956, at the age of 48, Nadia took a hiatus from action films after the release of Jungle Queen. She married Homi in 1961 and official became Nadia Wadia. In 1967, at the age of 58, she returned to action films with Khiladi, a James Bond-style spy film where she played a secret agent. This was to be her last film role though. Nadia passed away in 1996 at the age of 88.
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