The original name of Nagma is Nandita Arvind Morarji, which later became Namratha Sadhana. She has done works in Bollywood as well as Kollywood. During her peak times in 90`s decade, she ruled the Tamil cinema. Her mother is Muslim and her father is a Hindu. She was born on 25 December 1974. Nagma did her schooling from Mount Mary Convent, Bandra, Mumbai, India, and subsequently graduated in the Commerce stream from National College, Bandra. The actress started her acting career in Bollywood and acted in a few movies but shifted south where she met with greater success before returning again to Mumbai. She is particularly expert in speaking different types of languages, which include Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, English, and Telugu. She has done different roles in different regional languages that include Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and so on.
Nagma`s Film Career
Nagma got her first success at the box-office in her debut film "Baaghi: A Rebel For Love" opposite Salman Khan released in the year 1990. She starred as one of the female leads in the year 1994 along with Karisma Kapoor in the movie, "Suhaag" released in the year 1994. The movie also featured Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan. Other of her films include, "Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar", "Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love" where she appeared in a cameo role opposite Anil Kapoor and Karishma Kapoor. She also enacted in the comic flick, "Kunwara" where she starred opposite Govinda and Urmila Matondkar.
Despite the initial successes in Hindi cinema, she moved to south to star in Tamil and Telugu movies. Her major box office hits in Telugu include "Gharana Mogudu" released in 1993. She was starred opposite to Chiranjeevi. Following this she has another grand success with the movie "Allari alludu" where she starred opposite Nagarjuna. Her biggest Tamil hits were "Baasha" with Rajnikanth and "Kadhalan" with Prabhu Deva. In 1995, "Kadhalan" is said to have become the first Tamil movie to be dubbed into Hindi, in which it was renamed "Hum Se Hai Muqabala". Most of her performances in this era were glamorous roles with little substance. In 2000 she featured in a Bollywood movie Chal Mere Bhai along with Salman Khan, Karishma Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt. In 2006`s movie Ganga, she starred as Ganga opposite Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini.
Nagma has also worked in other regional movies. Some of her notable movies include, "Panditji Batai Na Byah Kab Hoi" which was her first Bhojpuri film, "Pariraam" which was her first Bengali movie. In 2006, she made her Punjabi film debut, starring alongside Raj Babbar in Ek Jind Ek Jaan.
She won a Best Actress award at the 2005 Bhojpuri Film Awards for her performance in Dulha Milal Dildar.
Nagma in Politics
An ardent supporter of India`s Congress Party, Nagma was recommended for the Rajya Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2007. She had also been the star campaigner for the Indian National Congress in Andhra Pradesh during the elections in, April 2004. Earlier in the same month she formally became a member of the Congress Party in Hyderabad.
Besides being an acclaimed movie star, Nagma has also has an exclusive boutique in 2003 on Bandra`s Hill Road called `Nagma`s`. In her free time, she enjoys teaching on subjects of spirituality and humanity, as well as swimming, horse riding and badminton.
