Fearless Nadia, was an Australian-Indian actress and stuntwoman who became an iconic figure in Indian cinema. She is still remebered for her hunter weilding, fearless persona from her 1936 hit “Hunterwali.”
Fearless Nadia, born Mary Ann Evans on January 8, 1908, in Perth, Western Australia. She was the daughter of Scotsman Herbertt Evans, a volunteer in the British Army, and Margret a women of Greek ancestry. The family moved to India when Mary was just five years old, settling in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1913. After her father’s untimely death during World War I, the family relocated to Peshawar (now in Pakistan). Evans, exhibiting athletic prowess from a young age, mastered horse riding, gymnastics, tennis, tap dance, and ballet – a formidable skill set for a cinematic superwoman.
Mary returned to Bombay in the 1920s and studied ballet under Madam Astrova. She initially worked as a salesgirl and performed with Astrova’s troupe for British soldiers and Indian royalty. An Armenian fortune teller predicted a successful career for her, provided she chose a name starting with ‘N’. Thus, she adopted the name Nadia.
After his father’s demise she trying her hands at many jobs and learnt many trades and eventually joined Zarko Circus in 1930 where She was spotted by legendary filmmaker Jamshed Boman Homi Wadia who was very impressed by athleticism of Evans and cast her as a slave girl in the 1933 film “Desh Deepak”, followed by Noor-e-Yaman, where she portrayed the role of Princess Parizaad.
In 1935 Wadia gave her the role of a lifetime in “Hunterwali” directed by his brother Homi Wadia, in which she played vigilante princess Madhuri who fights injustice and treason in her father’s kingdom by going undercover with a whip and a mask. The movie became a smash hit at the box office and was one of the top films of the decade it was the birth of “Fearless Nadia”
After the success of “Hunterwali,” colaborated with Homi Wadia in many blockbuster stunt films like Miss Frontier Mail (1936), Lutaru Lalna (1938), Punjab Mail (1939), Diamond Queen (1940), Jungle Princess (1942), Muqabla (1942), Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943), Flying Prince (1946), Sher-E-Baghdad (1946), 11 O’ Clock (1948), Dhoomketu (1949), Jungle Ka Jawahar (1952),
After the success of “Hunterwali,” colaborated with Homi Wadia in many blockbuster stunt films like Miss Frontier Mail (1936), Lutaru Lalna (1938), Punjab Mail (1939), Diamond Queen (1940), Jungle Princess (1942), Muqabla (1942), Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943), Flying Prince (1946), Sher-E-Baghdad (1946), 11 O’ Clock (1948), Dhoomketu (1949), Jungle Ka Jawahar (1952),
Over the years, Nadia went on to star in over 50 movies like R.N. Vaidya’s Hurricane Hansa (1937), Batuk Bhatt- Babubhai Mistry’s Muqabla (1942), Mauj (1943) Ramanlal Desai’s Mohabbat Ki Jeet (1943), Ramnik Vaidya’s Lady Robinhood (1946), Toofan Queen (1946), Stunt Queen (1947), Shapur Irani’s Chabuk Sawar (1947), Ratilal Bhatt’s Himmatwali (1947), Behram Mukadam’s Kismatwali (1947), Boman Shroff’s Toofani Tirandaz (1947), and Sher Dil (1954), Nari Ghadiali’s Jungle Goddess (1948), Billi (1949), and Fighting Queen (1956), Keshav Talpade’s Tigress (1948), and Maya Mahal (1949), Balwant Bhatt’s Delhi Express (1949), and Circuswale (1950), Noshir Engineer’s Shamsheer Baaz (1953), Carnival Queen (1955), Diler Daku (1957), and Circus Queen (1959), and John Cawas’s Bagdad Ka Jadoo (1956).
In 1967-68, when she was in her late 50s, she appeared in a James Bond spoof called Khiladi (The Player). She performed all her stunts herself many a times at great risk to her life.
Fearless Nadia married Homi Wadia, her long-time collaborator and director, in 1961. She retired from films in the early 1960s and took up breeding thoroughbred horses. Her colt “Nijinsky” became one of the greatest racehorses on Indian turf.
Nadia’s legacy continues to inspire generations of actors and filmmakers. Her fearless attitude, remarkable stunts, and pioneering spirit have left an indelible mark on Indian cinema. She passed away on January 9, 1996, in Bombay, India, at the age of 88.
In 1993, her grandnephew Riyad Vinci Wadia created the documentary Fearless: The Hunterwali Story, screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, which inspired German writer Dorothee Wenner to pen Fearless Nadia: The True Story of Bollywood’s Original Stunt Queen, later translated into English in 2005. Kangana Ranaut’s character in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Rangoon was also inspired by Nadia.
In 2015, India commemorated her 100th birthday with a postage stamp. In 2018, Google honored her 110th birthday with a doodle by Indian artist Devaki Neogi. The same year, the University of Melbourne and the Australia India Institute published essays in Fearless Nadia Occasional Papers.
Fearless Nadia’s journey from a circus artist to one of the Indian cinema’s most iconic action stars is a story straight from fairytales. No other actress have reached the heights of her popularity and charizma, speciall in action genre, even after so many decades. She broke barriers and set new standards for female actors, making her a true legend in the history of Indian cinema.
