Kamini Kaushal (born as Uma Kashyap) is an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films and television. She is noted for her roles in films such as (1946), which won the 1946 (Golden Palm) at Cannes Film Festival and Biraj Bahu (1954), which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in 1956.
She played the lead heroine in films from 1946 to 1963, wherein her roles in Do Bhai (1947), Shaheed (1948), Nadiya Ke Paar (1948), Ziddi (1948), Shabnam (1949), Paras (1949), Namoona (1949), Arzoo (1950), Jhanjar (1953), Aabroo (1956), Bade Sarkar (1957), Jailor (1958), Night Club (1958) and Godaan (1963) are considered her career's best performances. She played character roles since 1963, and was critically acclaimed for her performance in Shaheed (1965). She appeared in three of Rajesh Khanna's films, namely Do Raaste (1969), Prem Nagar (1974), (1976), in Anhonee (1973) with Sanjeev Kumar and in eight films with Manoj Kumar namely Shaheed, Upkar (1967), (1970), Shor (1972), Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974), Sanyasi (1975), Dus Numbri (1976) and Santosh (1989). In the 2010s, she took brief but praised supporting roles in the action comedy Chennai Express (2013) and the romantic drama Kabir Singh (2019), both of which rank among the highest grossing Indian films, winning the Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter.
Early life
Kamini Kaushal was born in Lahore. She is the youngest of two brothers and three sisters. She is the daughter of Prof. Shiv Ram Kashyap, Professor of Botany, University of Punjab at Lahore, British India (present-day Pakistan). Prof. Kashyap is widely regarded as the father of Indian Botany. Her father was a distinguished botanist who discovered six species of plants. She was only nine when her father died on 26 November 1934. She did her B.A. (honors) in English literature from Government College in Lahore. She got an offer to act in films through Chetan Anand in 1946 with .
Talking about her teenage years, she said in an interview, "I had no time to fool. I didn't have any crush. I was busy swimming, riding, skating and doing radio plays on Akashwani, for which I was paid Rs 10." When her elder sister died in a car accident, leaving behind two daughters, Kaushal had to marry her brother-in-law, B.S. Sood in 1948. She set up home in Bombay where her husband was a chief engineer in Bombay Port Trust. Her elder sister's daughters are Kumkum Somani and Kavita Sahni. Kumkum Somani has written a book for children on Gandhi's philosophy and Kavita Sahni is an artist. Kamini had three sons after 1955, Rahul, Vidur and Shravan.
In the 1950s, the couple lived in a spacious manor-type house "Gateside" in Mazagaon, which was allotted to her husband by BPT.
Career
Kamini had been a stage actress in Delhi during her college days from 1942 to 1945. She worked as a radio child artist with the name "Uma" in Lahore before the Partition, from 1937 to 1940. She said in an interview about whether she wanted to be an actress in her childhood: "I come from a very intellectual family. My dad, S. R. Kashyap, was a professor at Government College, Lahore and the President of the Science Congress. He'd written about 50 books on botany. Growing up, our family concentrated more on knowledge, but he never deterred us from doing anything we wanted as long as it was positive." Though she had no dreams of joining the film industry while being in college, she was a fan of actor Ashok Kumar. Once she said in an interview: "We were to perform for the war relief fund in college. Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitins were the chief guests. After the show we went to meet him. I thought of having some fun. As he stood talking to the students, I pulled his hair from behind."
Chetan Anand gave her the role of the leading heroine in his film . This movie was done by her before marriage and released in 1946. She quoted in an interview, when asked about why her name was changed from Uma to Kamini: "Chetan's wife Uma Anand was also part of the film. My name also being Uma, he wanted a different name for me. I asked him to give me a name beginning with 'K' to match with the names of my daughters Kumkum and Kavita." She won an award at the Montreal Film Festival for her performance in her debut film. She quoted in an interview about how she got her debut film: "Ravi Shankar was new, he had not done music for anybody. It was Zohra Segal's debut. Uma Anand (Chetan's wife) was with us in college — we were together. Chetan had been teaching at The Doon School and got to me through my brother.".