Salma Baig (20 August 1944 - 19 October 1995) popularly known as Kumari Naaz or Baby Naaz was an Indian actress in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

language films.

Career

She started her career as a child actor in films. Her best remembered role as a child artiste was in

R. K. Films R. K. Films was an Indian film production company based in R. K. Studio, a film studio, both established by and named after the Bollywood actor Raj Kapoor. It was headquartered at Chembur, Mumbai. Founded in 1948, one year after India gained ...

’ Boot Polish (1954) and Bimal Roy's

Devdas ''Devdas'' ( bn, দেবদাস, transliterated as ''Debdās'') is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidden ...

. She earned rave reviews for her earnest natural performance from

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and a special distinction (along with co-actor

Rattan Kumar Ratan Kumar (19 March 1941 – 12 December 2016) was the screen name of the Indian born child artist who later migrated to Pakistan. He acted in Indian & Pakistani movies. He was born as Syed Nazir Ali Rizvi. He is best known for his work i ...

) from

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in 1955, where the film was shown in competition. In 1958, a Hindi film adaptation called

Do Phool ''Do Phool'' () is a 1973 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by S. Ramanathan. The film stars Ashok Kumar, Vinod Mehra and Mehmood. It is a remake of the Tamil-language film '' Anubavi Raja Anubavi'' which inspired another Hindi film ...

(Two Flowers) was released based on the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

literary novel/ icon

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Used ...

. The role of Heidi – called Poornima in the film – was played by Baby Naaz who was one of the most famous child stars at the time along with

Master Romi Master Romi (born Mohammed Salim) is a former Indian actor in Hindi language films. He was best known as a child actor after his brilliant performance in K.A. Abbas’s film “ Munna” released in 1954. “Munna”, the first songless Hindi m ...

. She matured into a character actress and bagged good roles in films like Bahu Begum,

Kati Patang ''Kati Patang'' () is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film produced and directed by Shakti Samanta. It was a box office success. The film stars Asha Parekh as a woman pretending to be a widow, and her ensuing trials and tribulations ...

and

Sachaa Jhutha ''Sachaa Jhutha'' (English: "Honest and Liar") is a 1970 Indian Hindi action comedy film directed by Manmohan Desai and produced by Vinod Doshi. The film written by Desai's wife Jeevanprabha, was edited by Kamlakar Kamkhanis. The film starring ...

(where she played Rajesh Khanna's physically challenged sister).

Awards and honours

;

1955 Cannes Film Festival The 8th Cannes Film Festival was held from 26 April to 10 May 1955. The Golden Palm went to the US film '' Marty'' by Delbert Mann. The festival opened with '' Du rififi chez les hommes'' by Jules Dassin and closed with ''Carmen Jones'' by Otto Pr ...

* Special Mention to a child actress It was a Distinction award which was a tie between two child artistes at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. The other was Pablito Calvo for his child actor performance in the 1955 Spanish film Marcelino, pan y vino.

Later career

She later transitioned into a second career as a dubbing artiste. Before

Sridevi Shree Amma Yanger Ayyappan (13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), professionally credited with her stage name Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. Cited as the "First Female ...

started using her own voice, Kumari Naaz dubbed for her in the early Hindi hits of the 1980s.

Personal life

She married actor

Subbiraj Subbiraj Kakkar popularly known as Subbiraj was an Indian character actor in Hindi-language films and television. He was the son of the sister of veteran actor Prithviraj Kapoor named Kailash and thus a cousin of Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and S ...

(cousin of veteran actor

Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor (pronunciation: �aːd͡ʒ kəpuːɾ born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered one of th ...

) in 1965 and continued working. The two had acted together in

Mera Ghar Mere Bachche ''Mera Ghar Mere Bachche'' () is a 1960 Indian Hindi-language social family drama film produced and directed by Sohrab Modi. Made under the Minerva Movietone banner, it had music by Sardar Malik with lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri. The film had Naaz ...

(1960) and Dekha Pyar Tumhara (1963).

Filmography

Her films include:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Naaz, Kumari Indian film actresses Actresses in Hindi cinema 20th-century Indian actresses Actresses from Mumbai 1944 births 1995 deaths