Mandakini (actress)

Mandakini
Mandakini in Dec 2012
Born	Yasmeen Joseph (1963-07-30) 30 July 1963 (age 53) Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
Other names	Mandakini Joseph Thakur
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1985–1999
Spouse(s)	Dr. Kagyur T. Rinpoche Thakur (1990–present)

Mandakini (born 30 July 1963, as Yasmeen Joseph) is a former Bollywood actress. She is best remembered for her role in the 1985 movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili.

Mandakini was born in an Anglo Indian family in Meerut. Her father, Joseph is British and her mother is Muslim.

Starting off as an unknown girl from Meerut, Yasmin was rejected by atleast three film makers before Ranjit Virk changed her name to Madhuri and signed her up for "Mazloom". Before the film could take off, Raj Kapoor discovered her at age of 22 and cast her in a lead role in 1985 movie, Ram Teri Ganga Maili with the screen name "Mandakini" opposite his youngest son, Rajiv Kapoor. The movie was a blockbuster, and it earned Mandakini a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. Her physical assets were exploited to the full in the film which had caused quite a stir, especially because of two scenes in it: one in which Mandakini was shown bathing under a waterfall wearing only a flimsy white saree through which her breasts and nipples were clearly visible and another in which she was shown breast-feeding a child. This movie made her the ultimate sex-symbol of Hindi screen then. Since then she was offered dare-all bare-all lead roles.

Mandakini acted in a few more successful films, such as Dance Dance with Mithun Chakraborty, Kahan Hai Kanoon with Aditya Pancholi and Pyaar Karke Dekho with Govinda, but never managed to recreate the success of her first movie.

In 1994, photographs began circulating of Mandakini in the presence of dreaded gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Rumours had already been doing the rounds that the two were having an affair, and the photos only served to fuel them. One of the theories put forward was that Ibrahim, who was known to have a keen interest in Bollywood and had financed movies, had pressured Rishi Kapoor into casting Mandakini, and she was his mistress. Later, it was alleged that she had moved to Dubai to be with him.