Nafisa Ali

Nafisa Ali was born in Kolkata, the daughter of Ahmed Ali, a Bengali man and Philomena Torresan, a woman of Anglo-Indian heritage. Nafisa's paternal grandfather, S. Wajid Ali, was a Bengali writer. Her paternal aunt (father's sister) was Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, a Pakistani journalist. Nafisa is also related to the Bangladeshi freedom fighter and soldier Bir Pratik Akhtar Ahmed.^[2] Nafisa's mother later moved to Australia.^[3]

Nafisa attended La Martiniere Calcutta, where she was a House Captain.^[4] She has also studied vedanta taught by Swami Chinmayananda, who started the center Chinmaya Mission of World Understanding.

Nafisa Ali has accomplishments in several fields. She was the national swimming champion from 1972 to 1974. In 1976, she won the Femina Miss India title, represented India at the Miss International contest & was declared the 2nd runner-up. Ali was also a jockey at the Calcutta Gymkhana in 1979.

She has acted in several Bollywood films, the notable ones being Junoon (1979) with Shashi Kapoor, Major Saab (1998) with Amitabh Bachchan, Bewafaa (2005), Life In A... Metro (2007) and Yamla Pagla Deewana (2010) with Dharmendra.

She also acted in a Malayalam film called Big B (2007) with Mammootty.

Nafisa Ali contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully from South Kolkata. On 5 April 2009, she contested the Lok Sabha election from Lucknow on the Samajwadi Party ticket after Sanjay Dutt's disqualification by the Supreme Court on the basis of a prior conviction. She then rejoined the Indian National Congress party in November 2009 and said she is returning to Congress for life.^[5] However, she joined the All India Trinamool Congress in October 2021 ahead of the 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly election.^[6]

She is married to Colonel Ravinder Singh Sodhi, a polo player who won the Arjuna Award.^[4] After marriage, she chose to stop working and focus on their children: daughters Armana and Pia and son Ajit.^[3]

In September 2005, she was appointed the chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI). She also associated with Action India, an organisation working to spread AIDS awareness.^{[citation needed]} In November 2018, Ali was diagnosed with stage 3 peritoneal and ovarian cancer.^[7]

• Junoon (1979)
• Kshatriya (1993)
• Aatank (1996)
• Major Saab (1998)
• Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar (2001)
• Bewafaa (2005)
• Big B (2007) as Mary teacher
• Life in a... Metro (2008)
• Guzaarish (2010)
• Lahore (2010)
• Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011)
• Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 (2018) as Rajmata Yashodhara
• Uunchai (2022)

• List of Indian women athletes

• Official website  
• Nafisa Ali at IMDb
• An interview with Nafisa Ali
• A write-up on Nafisa Ali