Happy Birthday Mandakini: 7 lesser-known facts about the Ram Teri Ganga Maili actor

Yesteryear actor Mandakini is still remembered for the iconic waterfall scene in Raj Kapoor’s superhit film Ram Teri Ganga Maili. As the actor turns 48 today, here’s checking out some lesser-known facts about the actor.

Mandakini will forever remain the perfect example of a one-hit wonder. She was immortalised on screen when filmmaker Raj Kapoor selected her to play the lead role in his ambitious film Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1987), in which he launched his youngest son Rajiv Kapoor. But what stunned everyone was Raj deciding that his heroine will bare it all- and thus ensured that Mandakini will always be remembered by the iconic scene where she takes a bath under a waterfall. But what about it?

Actor Mandakini celebrates her 48th birthday today.

On her birthday today, we bring you seven lesser-known facts about the mystery that is Mandakini:

1. Born in 1963 in Meerut as Yasmin Joseph, she was spotted by director-actor Raj Kapoor when she was 22. He changed her screen name to Mandakini.

The controversial scene where Mandakini bared her bosom on-screen in the film Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985)

2.How director Raj Kapoor managed to get the waterfall scene passed by Censors is still not known. Mandakini’s bosom was featured in the scene, veiled behind a wet white cloth.

Mandakini shot to superstardom with her role of a village belle in Raj Kapoor’s last film

3. In 1994, her photographs with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim created a sensation. Rumours were rife that the two were a couple and even had a son together, which Mandakini denied.

4. Mandakini, in an interview to a leading daily, however did admit later that she was only friends with Dawood, as she had went to Dubai for shows as a film-star and met him a couple of times.

Actor Sonakshi Sinha played a role modelled on Mandakini in the film Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara! (2013)

5. Actor Sonakshi Sinha’s character Jasmine in the film Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara! (2013) was based on Mandakini. In the film, actor Akshay Kumar essays the role of a dreaded gangster who falls in love with a beautiful film actor.

6.Though she later did films such as the superhit Dance Dance (1987) with dancing star Mithun Chakraborty, and even played a pivotal role in the Madhuri Dixit starrer Tezaab (1988), but none of them managed to recreate the same magic as Mandakini’s debut film.

7. Mandakini quit acting in 1996, after directors and producers stopped offering her work- mainly because her films in the past few years hadn’t done well, and also due to her alleged relationship with Dawood. She is now settled in Mumbai with her daughter Rabze and husband Dr. Kagyur T. Rinpoche Thakur, who was a former Buddhist monk and the famous face of Murphy Radio as a baby.

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