Rishi Kapoor mourns Nimmi, says she was 'part of the RK family'

MUMBAI: Bollywood veteran actor Rishi Kapoor has condoled the demise of yesteryears actress Nimmi, saying that she was an integral part of the Kapoor family.

"RIP. Thank you Nimmi aunty for all the blessings and love for ‘Bobby' on its premiere release," Rishi tweeted.

"You were part of the RK family. ‘Barsaat' was your first film. Allah aapko Jannat naseeb kare. Ameen," he added.

Nimmi passed away at her residence in the city on Wednesday evening. She was 88, and had been ailing for a while now.

Nimmi, whose name was Nawab Banoo, made her Bollywood debut in Raj Kapoor's 1949 release, "Barsaat", which was Kapoor's first major hit. The film co-starred Nargis. In fact, the screen name Nimmi was reportedly given to her by Kapoor.

Through the fifties and the sixties, the actress worked in films with most top actors, notably the Bollywood Triumvirate of the era -- Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. One of her earliest releases was Fali Mistry's "Sazaa" starring Dev Anand in 1951. The same year, she worked with Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kumar in Nitin Bose's "Deedar".

Her other notable films include "Uran Khatola (1955) with Dilip Kumar, the Ashok Kumar-Kishore Kumar starrer "Bhai-Bhai (1956), Sohrab Modi's "Kundan" (1955), the Rajendra Kumar-starrer "Mere Mehboob" (1963) and "Akashdeep" (1965).

Nimmi's last release was K. Asif's much-delayed "Love And God", a retelling of the Laila-Majnu story.

She was born in Agra on February 18, 1933, as Nawab Banoo to a Muslim courtesan named Wahidan. Her father was a military contractor, Abdul Hakim. When she was only 11, her mother passed away and Nimmi went to Abbottabad to live with her maternal grandmother. Post Partition in 1947, when Abbotabad went to Pakistan, Nimmi's grandmother shifted to Mumbai to live in India. That's where Nimmi's Bollywood connection came in, because her grandmother's other daughter, Jyoti, was a one-time actress, and Jyoti's husband GM Durrani was a renowned playback singer and composer.

Over the recent past, Nimmi was suffering from breathing problems and had been in and out of the hospital.