Indrani Mukherjee

Background

Mukherjee was born and brought up in Allahabad.

Career

Not to be confused with Indrani Mukerjea. Apart from Hindi films Indrani has also acted in Marathi films like Apradh. She started taking part in Hindi radio plays at All India Radio, Allahabad.

Her elder sister Maya was already an actress in Bengali cinema, when she happened to enter a beauty competition, wherein actress Nutan and Shobhana Samarth were judges.

Thereafter she was screen tested by Bimal Roy, which led to her debut with directed by Moni Bhattacharjee and produced by Roy, with Sunil Dutt and Nanda as the leads. Foreign next decade she became a regular feature in Hindi films, as a character actor, in notable films like, Mere Laal (the famous song payal ki jhankar raste raste was picturised on her), Grahasthi,, and, the Dharmendra starrer, in which played the pivotal role of Rajmata (Queen Mother).

She also acted in a few Marathi and Bhojpuri films, including Apradh.

Achievements

• Her next film was Dharmputra (1961) opposite Shashi Kapoor and directed by Yash Chopra, and which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi Her next big film was war film, Haqeeqat (1964) directed by Chetan Anand, who subsequently cast her as the lead, opposite debutante Rajesh Khanna in Aakhri Khat (1966), the film received critical acclaim, and was India"s entry to the Academy Awards.