From Bollywood To Underworld, Mandakini’s controversial life journey

Mandakini

Mandakini’s real name is Yasmeen Joseph. She was born in an Anglo Indian family. Her father, Joseph was a British and her mother was a Muslim.

Mandakini

Mandakini’s first movie was a Bengali film named ‘Antarer Bhalobasha’. Later on she was seen in 2 Bollywood movies, Mera Saathi and Aar Paar. These movies didn’t give her the publicity that she required.

Mandakini

In 1990, Mandakini married Dr. Kagyur T. Rinpoche Thakur, who was a former Buddist monk and had gained fame in his childhood as the baby featured in Murphy Radio advertisements. She has a son and a daughter.

Mandakini

It was only when Raj Kapoor cast her in his movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili opposite his youngest son, Rajiv Kapoor did she get famous. The movie was a huge hit at the box-office. Mandakini was only 16 when she did this movie and earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress.

Mandakani

On the contrary, the film also caused a lot of controversy because of 2 scenes which included Mandakini in it. 1. Mandakini was seen wearing only a flimsy white saree while bathing under the waterfall. Her breasts were clearly visible in that song. 2. She was also shown breast-feeding a child in the movie.

Mandakini

Other successful movies of Mandakini were Dance Dance with Mithun Chakraborty and Pyaar Karke Dekho with Govinda.

Mandakini

There were rumours all over the Industry that Mandakini was dating the dreaded gangster Dawood Ibrahim. In 1994, pictures of her and Dawood together also caused a stir. However, Mandakini denied all rumours linking her to Dawood.

Mandakini

In an interview she did admit that she was friends with the gangster but she did not know him personally. In an interview, she said I'm not Dawood's moll, Why don''t these old stories about my being Dawood Ibrahim’s girlfriend ever leave me? I want to move on. How many times must I justify myself? I never had any romantic relationship with Dawood Ibrahim. Never. Photos of me with him were splashed in newspapers almost 10 years ago.

Mandakini

After all this happened Mandakini’s career went to ruins. She was last seen in the movie Zordaar which released in 1996. The movie starred Govinda, Aditya Pancholi and Neelam Kothari.