The Lost Heroine: Mandakini Mandakini (born 30 July 1969, as Yasmeen Joseph) is a former Bollywood actress. She is better remembered for her role in the 1985 movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili. Mandakini was born in an Anglo Indian family in Meerut. Her father, Joseph is British Christian and her mother is Hindu. At 16, she was cast in the lead role in Raj Kapoor's 1985 movie, Ram Teri Ganga Maili opposite his youngest son, Rajiv Kapoor. The movie was a hit, and it earned Mandakini a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. The film also caused a stir because of two scenes: one in which Mandakini bathes under a waterfall wearing only a flimsy white saree through which her breasts are clearly visible and another in which she is shown breast-feeding a child. Some critics claimed that the scenes were vulgar and exploitative, and were used to get around the Indian Film Censor Board's stringent rules against nudity. Kapoor, as usual, defended the inclusion of the scenes stating that they were tasteful. Mandakini acted in a few more successful films, such as Dance Dance with Mithun Chakraborty and Pyaar Karke Dekho with Govinda, but never managed to recreate the success of her first movie.

• published: 12 Dec 2013
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