If Nutan had been alive, she would have been 83 today. Unfortunately, one of the best actresses of her generation passed away in 1991, at the age of 54 (owing to breast cancer), leaving a rich legacy behind for us to remember her by. Born to director-poet Kumarsen Samarth and actress Shobhna Samarth, Nutan started off her journey in Bollywood at the young age of 14 in the year 1950 in a movie called Hamari Beti. She got her first breakout role in Seema, a movie for which she won her first Filmfare Award for the Best Actress. Salman Khan Launches Yesteryear Actress Nutan's Granddaughter Pranutan Bahl and She Is Beautiful!

Nutan has played the female lead in popular and acclaimed movies like Paying Guest, Anari, Sujata, Saraswatichandra, Tere Ghar Ke Samne, Bandini, Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki etc. She had worked with popular stars of her era like Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna. From the '80s till her untimely demise, Nutan did character roles in quite a few movies like Karma, Meri Jung, Naam and Kanoon Apna Apna (her last film before her demise).

On the occasion of Nutan's birth anniversary, we list some very fascinating facts about the actress for our generation to know Nutan better and cherish her in our memories forever.

#1 Nutan's first film, Hamari Beti, was directed by her own mother, Shobana Samarth.

#2 Nutan's family lineage is entrenched in cinema. Her parents were both in the industry. Her son, Mohnish Bahl, is a popular Bollywood and television actor and her granddaughter Pranutan recently made her debut with the movie, Notebook, in 2019. Her sister is actress, Tanuja, whose both daughters, Kajol and Tanishaa are actresses. Notebook Movie Review: The Kids Steal the Show in Pranutan Bahl and Zaheer Iqbal’s Love Story.

#3 Though they were much in demand as the lead actors in the '60s and '70s, it took the 1986 film Karma to pair up Nutan with Dilip Kumar.

#4 Nutan holds the record of being the actress with the maximum Filmfare wins for her performances (5 Best Actress awards and one Supporting Actress award). The record remained unbeaten for years, till her own niece, Kajol, tied up with her in 2011.

#5 Nutan had a secretarial degree that she earned from Switzerland. She is also believed to be fluent in French.

#6 Nutan had once slapped the late Sanjeev Kumar, as the latter reportedly spread (false) gossip about their affair.

#7 The Government of India had awarded Nutan the Padma Shri in 1974.

#8 In her illustrious career, Nutan has only done one serial - Mujrim Hazir, based on Bimal Mitra's novel Asami Hazir that was aired on Doordarshan in 1988. Nutan's performance as Kaliganj ki bahu got her a lot of acclaim.

#9 Two of her films, Garajna and Insaniyat, was released after her demise in 1991. Insaniyat was delayed owing to various production issues and came after one of its lead stars Amitabh Bachchan had taken a brief retirement from acting. Like Nutan, the movie was also late actor Vinod Mehra's posthumous release.

#10 Eminent filmmaker, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, was a fan of Nutan's acting. He had once said, "They don't make actresses like her anymore." Perhaps as a tribute to her, SLB had adapted one of her best movies, Saraswatichandra, for the small screen. The serial which ran between 2013 to 2014, starred Gautam Rode and Jennifer Winget in the lead.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2019 10:45 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).