The Mind Creative
Nadia was born in Perth (Australia) to a British father and a Greek
mother as Mary Evans. Her father, a soldier in the British army,
migrated to Bombay (today’s Mumbai) when Mary was quite
young. He was deputed near Peshawar where Mary grew up riding
horses in the wide open plains. Later, after her father was killed
in World War I, she moved back to Mumbai with her mother.
Years later, Mary learnt shorthand and typing in order to get a
decent job. In her biographical documentary film, she says “I got
so fat that I decided to reduce.” That led her to join dance classes
with a Russian dancer Madam Astrova who was quick to spot
shades of undiscovered talent in Mary and inducted Mary into her
touring dance company. It was then that Mary decided to change
her name to a more exotic ‘Nadia’. During these years Nadia learnt
the art of doing cartwheels and ‘splits’ – skills that would come in
very handy in the years to come.
After a short stint with the dance
troupe, Nadia went and worked
for Zarco circus for a while in
1930 but boredom of circus life
sent her back to the stage where
she made a living as a dancer
and singer (with a few Hindi
songs in her repertoire!). After
one of her performances, she
was introduced to the Wadia
brothers (Jamshed and Homi)
who were stalwarts of the
Mumbai film industry. She was
apparently asked by Jamshed as
to what she could bring to the
silver screen to which she replied
“I’ll try anything once!”
Jamshed or JBH as he was fondly known in the film industry, had
always detested females being cast in submissive roles in Indian
films and had always aspired to create movies that depicted women
as strong and having their own will. In order to test Nadia’s influence
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