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First Indian Actor to Buy Rolls Royce: A Stranded Immigrant’s Journey to Bollywood Stardom

Sanjana Bailwal2 years ago2 years ago1666 mins

This 1950s’ star bought a Rolls-Royce when few Indians could dream of the car, much less own it.

Rolls-Royce is the epitome symbol of luxury and class about cars. You need something more than money to buy because, in most cases, it is the company that will decide if it wants to sell a car to you. So, the elite class of people who own the Rolls Royce are people ranging from former royals to film stars. In India, a good number of film superstars own some variant of the Rolls Royce. But an unusual name initiated this trend, and that too, nearly 60 years ago

The First Bollywood Star to drive a Rolls Royce

Today, they own Rolls Royces like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Vijay and Chiranjeevi but were a few decades too late to be the first.

Nadira was first.

Originally called Florence Ezekiel, Nadira is one of the stars of Bollywood in the 1950s and 60s. She is one of the first celebrities in the country, indeed the first actor, to possess a Rolls Royce car, which she bought during the 60s.

Life outside films of Nadira

The riches Nadira amassed take on an even greater proportion if one considers her formative years. The actress was born in Baghdad, Iraq, to a Baghdadi Jewish family. Nadira family immigrated to Bombay in the 1930s. Nadira began working early to help the family’s finances. She was an earning member by the time she was 11 and ran the house when she was barely 18.

She had almost 60 years of a film career, and her last appearance on the big screen was in Josh and Zohra Mahal in 2000-01. By then, the actor had been living alone in Mumbai, and most of her family had left for Israel. In 2006, Nadira died at the age of 73 after a prolonged illness.

Nadira : An Epitome of Confidence and Beauty, a Classy Villain

Actress Nadira was the very first sophisticated vamp in Hindi cinema when women were expected to be demure and play only positive roles.
She entered Bollywood in the 50s with Aan (1952), featuring Dilip Kumar, and Shree420 (1955), featuring Raj Kapoor, giving a new meaning and depth to the character of a vamp. She played the confident, often sensuous young woman not afraid to get what she wanted in several films.
Her arched eyebrows, as she wooed Raj Kapoor in the song Mud mud ke nadekh in the classic Shree 420 would remain etched in the memories of cine lovers for a long time.

Nadira had a career that spanned more than five decades with over 60 films to her name. She was part of some of the most iconic Hindi filmdom’s movies, right from Mehboob Khan’s Aan, in which she played the fiery Princess Rajashree to classics like Waris, Shree 420, Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah, Dil Apna Aur PreetParayi, Saagar and Amar Akbar Anthony.

Nadira acted as the mother of the hero in the movie Julie; she won the Filmfare award in the Best Supporting Actress category in 1975.
Nadira’s last movie was Josh in the year 2000 where she acted alongside Shah Rukh Khan. This was one of her last assignments in a Bollywood feature film; she also acted in the English film by Ismail Merchant called Cotton Mary (1999) and a Pooja Bhatt release called Tamanna (1997).

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