Mary Evans a.k.a.
Mary Evans Wadia a.k.a.
Fearless Nadia (8 January 1908 – 9 January 1996) was an actress and stuntwoman, who is most remembered as the masked, cloaked adventurer in
Hunterwali (The Princess and the Hunter) released in 1935,
[1][2][3] which was one of the earliest female-lead
Indian films.
[4]
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Fearless Nadia was born as
Mary Ann Evans on 8 January 1908 in
Perth, Western Australia. She was the daughter of Scotsman Herbertt Evans, a volunteer in the
British Army, and Margret. They lived in Australia, before coming to India. Mary was one year old when Herbertt's regiment was seconded to
Bombay. Mary came to Bombay in 1913 at the age of five with her father. In 1915, her father’s untimely death at the hands of
Germansduring
World War I prompted the family’s move to Peshawar.
[5] She learned horseback riding, hunting, fishing, and shooting during a stay in the
North-West Frontier Province. In 1928, she returned to Bombay with her mother and a son, Robert Jones, about whom not much is known, and then studied ballet under Madam Astrova.
[1]
She had earlier tried her hand at a job in the Army & Navy Store in Bombay as a salesgirl and had at one point wanted to learn “short-hand and typing to get a better job”. Astrova’s troupe performed for British soldiers at military bases, for Indian royalty and for other crowds in dusty small towns and villages. She mastered the art of cartwheels and splits, which came in handy later during her film stunts. An Armenian fortune teller had foretold that a successful career lay ahead but she would have to choose a name starting with the letter ‘N’. She chose the name Nadia because it was “exotic-sounding”.
[5]
Poster of
Hunterwali(1935) featuring Fearless Nadia.
She toured India as a theatre artist and began working for
Zarko Circus in 1930. She was introduced to
Hindi films by
Jamshed "J.B.H." Wadia who was the founder of
Wadia Movietone, the behemoth of stunts and action in 1930s Bombay. At first, J.B.H. was bemused at Mary's insistence on trying out for the movies, but he took a gamble by giving her a cameo as a slave girl (in a hand-painted colour sequence that accentuated her blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes) in the film
Desh Deepak, and then as Princess Parizaad in
Noor-e-Yaman. Nadia proved a huge hit with the audience, whereupon, considering her skills at performing circus and other stunts, J.B.H. -- by then joined by his younger brother
Homi -- chose to develop her into a star.
[5] In 1967-68, when she was in her late 50s, she appeared in a James Bond spoof called Khiladi ("The Players").
[6]
In 1993, Nadia's great grandnephew,
Riyad Vinci Wadia, made a documentary of her life and films, called
Fearless: The Hunterwali Story. After watching the documentary at the 1993
Berlin International Film Festival, Dorothee Wenner, a German freelance writer, and film curator, wrote a book,
Fearless Nadia - The true story of Bollywood's original stunt queen, which was subsequently translated to English in 2005.
[7]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Nadia
Mary Evans a.k.a. Mary Evans Wadia a.k.a. Fearless Nadia (8 January 1908 – 9 January 1996) was an actress and stuntwoman, who is most remembered as ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunterwali
"lady with the whip"), the film propelled Nadia and the Wadia brothers of Wadia ... MaryEvans aka Nadia, an Australian entered Indian cinema in 1934 and had ...
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www.indianage.com/show.php
... the Government for suspension of Registration Act, offers voluntary registration. 8-January-1908, Mary Nadia Wadia (Fearless Nadia), great actress, was born.
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theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/docs/web/nadia.html
Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia. The documentary on Mary Evans Wadia'slife, Fearless: The Hunterwali Story was NOT made by her grandson, Riyad ...
theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/persons/me-wadia.html
Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia. Born: January 7, 1909, Perth, Australia. Died: January 8, 1996, Bombay, India. Born on January 7, 1909, in Perth, ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com › Entertainment › Hindi › Bollywood
Jan 2, 2013 - The on-going Oz Fest's segment on Mary Ann Evans and Australia's ...Wadia's grandson the late Riyad Vinci Wadia introduced Nadia to the ...
www.australiaunlimited.com/culture/australias-first-bollywood-icon
Jan 25, 2013 - Fearless Nadia was portrayed by Australian actress Mary Ann Evans. ... The filmmaker brothers, Jamshed Bomanji Wadia (JBH) and Homi ...
www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/fearless-nadia
Fearless Nadia (1908-1996) was an Australian actress born Mary Ann Evans in ... “Fearless Nadia” is a courtesy extended by Wadia Movietone to the Australia ...
www.imdb.com/name/nm0269884/
Fearless Nadia, Actress: Diamond Queen. Fearless Nadia was born Mary Evans in Perth, Australia. ... Fearless Nadia | Nadia | Nadia H. Wadia. Edit ...
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