Who was Fearless Nadia: Fearless Nadia is known as Indian cinema’s original stuntwoman. Google Doodle has paid homage to her on 110th birthday. Fearless Wadia, whose original name is Mary Ann Evans, was born on January 9, 1908 in Perth, Australia. She is known as the blue-eyed, curvy-hipped, ballet-trained blonde actress who emerged as the original Bollywood stuntwoman in the 1930s and 1940s.”Gutsy stunt star Fearless Nadia is ready to rumble in today’s Doodle, which was created by Bangalore-based comic illustrator Devaki Neogi. The illustration draws inspiration from the action movie posters of old-time Hindi cinema. Happy Birthday, Fearless Nadia!” the search engine giant has said.
Nadia was the discovery of Jamshed Boman Homi Wadia who gave her the first break in a lead role in 1935 film Hunterwali (The Lady of the Whip) with which she stormed into the silver screen and established herself as the stunt queen of the new era. Nadia worked in six of Wadia’s films – Hunterwali, Pahadi Kanya, Miss Fronter Mail, Lutaru Lalna, Punjab Mail and Diamond Queen. Audience used to throng to theatres to watch the fiery actress with kicks, whips and in leather shorts, a mask and a cape performing all the stunts on her own. Nadia’s inception in the showbiz world happened after she changed her name on the advice of a fortune teller following which she was cast in cameos before emerging as a film director’s success story: Fearless Nadia, action heroine. Before she changed her name she stayed for a while in Peshawar and then first joined a touring dance troupe in Bombay, then known as the Zarco Circus. Nadia, over the years had entertained her audience with dazzling stunts – she swung from chandeliers, jumped from speeding trains and even tamed lions.
Nadia was the nucleus of Wadia’s grand scheme of costume-dramas, Oriental films and was taught to kick and punch by Homi’s best stuntmen – Boman Shroff and Ustad Haqu. Nadia was given the nickname ‘Fearless Nadia’ by her husband Homi Wadia after she jumped from the roof of a studio set during shoot. Nadia created the watershed moment in film history by being the male-villain conqueror, whom the Indian audience loved to see as she fought against oppression. After a string of films, Nadia called it quits in the early 60s, however, the fiery actress returned to screen with Riyad Wadia’s 1993 documentary ‘Fearless: The Hunterwali’.