Nayeem at 04:53, 29 November 2025

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{{Short description|Australian-born Indian actress (1908–1996)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Fearless Nadia in 11 O'Clock (1948).jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption = Fearless Nadia in ''[[11 O'Clock]]'' (1948)
| birthname = Mary Ann Evans
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1908|1|8}}
| birth_place = [[Perth]], [[Western Australia]], Australia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1996|1|9|1908|1|8}}
| death_place = [[Bombay]], [[Maharashtra]], India
| othername = Mary Evans Wadia<br/>Nadia Wadia
| occupation = Actress, stuntwoman
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Homi Wadia]]|1961}}
| relatives = See [[Wadia family]]
| yearsactive = 1933–1970
}}

'''Mary Ann Evans''' (8 January 1908 – 9 January 1996), also known by her stage name '''Fearless Nadia''', was an Australian-Indian actress and stuntwoman, who worked in [[Indian cinema]]. She is most remembered as the masked, cloaked adventurer in ''[[Hunterwali]]'', released in 1935,<ref name="one">{{cite web |url=http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/persons/me-wadia.html |title=Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia Biography |work=tifr.res.in |date=21 July 1997 |accessdate=22 November 2015}}</ref><ref name="two">{{cite web |url=http://nfaipune.nic.in/hunterwali.htm |title=Hunterwali Ki Beti(1935) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006100724/http://nfaipune.nic.in/hunterwali.htm |archive-date=6 October 2013 |work=[[NFAI]]}}</ref><ref name="three">{{cite web |url=http://memsaabstory.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/fearless-nadia |title=Profile and images |work=memsaabstory.wordpress.com |date=19 February 2008 |accessdate=22 November 2015}}</ref> which was one of the earliest female-led [[Indian films]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Dr. Piyush Roy |year=2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlCwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |title=Bollywood FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Greatest Film Story Never Told |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=7 |isbn=9781493050833}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cinema: Female Interest |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?222111 |date=24 November 2003 |work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]] |access-date=26 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013132250/http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?222111 |archive-date=13 October 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Biography==

===Early life===
Fearless Nadia was born as Mary Ann Evans on 8 January 1908 in [[Perth]], Western Australia. She was the daughter of Scotsman Herbertt Evans, a volunteer in the [[British Army]], and Margret. They lived in Australia, before coming to India. Mary was one year old when Herbertt's regiment was seconded to [[Bombay]]. Mary came to Bombay in 1913 at the age of five with her father.

In 1915, her father's untimely death at the hands of [[Imperial German Army|Germans]] during [[World War I]] prompted the family's move to [[Peshawar]] (now in [[Pakistan]]).<ref name="zero"/> She learnt horseback riding, hunting, fishing, and shooting during a stay in the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North-West Frontier Province]] (now [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]]).

During the 1920s, Evans returned to Bombay (now Mumbai) with her mother and a son, Robert Jones, about whom not much is known, and then studied ballet under Madam Astrova.<ref name="one" />

She had earlier tried her hand at a job in the Army & Navy Store in Bombay (Mumbai) as a salesgirl and had at one point wanted to learn "short-hand and typing to get a better job". Astrova's troupe performed for British soldiers at military bases, for Indian royalty, and for other crowd in small towns and villages. She mastered the art of cartwheels and splits, which came in handy later during her film stunts. An Armenian fortune teller had foretold that a successful career lay ahead but she would have to choose a name starting with the letter 'N'. She chose the name Nadia because it was "exotic-sounding".<ref name="zero"/>

===Career===
[[File:Nadia-hunterwali-1935.jpg|150px|thumb|Poster of ''[[Hunterwali]]'' (1935) featuring Fearless Nadia.]]
She toured India as a theatre artist and began working for Zarko Circus in 1930. She was introduced to [[Bollywood|Hindi films]] by [[JBH Wadia|Jamshed "J.B.H." Wadia]] who was the founder of [[Wadia Movietone]], the behemoth of stunts and action in 1930s Bombay. At first, J.B.H. was bemused at Mary's insistence on trying out for the movies, but he took a gamble by giving her a cameo as a slave girl (in a hand-painted colour sequence that accentuated her blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes) in the film ''Desh Deepak'', and then as Princess Parizaad in ''Noor-e-Yaman''. Nadia proved a huge hit with the audience, whereupon, considering her skills at performing circus and other stunts, J.B.H., by then joined by his younger brother [[Homi Wadia|Homi]], chose to develop her into a star.<ref name="zero">{{cite web |url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cinema/the-woman-with-a-whip |title=The woman with a Whip |author=Shaikh Ayaz |date=18 November 2012 |publisher=[[OPEN (Indian magazine)|OPEN]]: OPEN |access-date=22 November 2015}}</ref> In 1967–68, when she was in her late 50s, she appeared in a James Bond spoof called ''[[Khiladi (1968 film)|Khiladi]]'' (''The Player'').<ref>{{cite book |author1=Wenner, D. |author2=Morrison, R. |year=2005 |title=Fearless Nadia: the true story of Bollywood's original stunt queen |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780143032700 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QCdlAAAAMAAJ |access-date=22 November 2015}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Nadia married [[Homi Wadia]] in 1961 and thus became Nadia Wadia.<ref>{{cite news |title=International focus on 'Fearless Nadia' |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200803160923.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125094708/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200803160923.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 January 2013 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=16 March 2008}}</ref><ref>[http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/persons/me-wadia.html Mary Evans Wadia, aka Fearless Nadia] rsTIFR.</ref> The couple did not have children, but Homi adopted Nadia's son.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=2024-02-18 |title=Fearless Nadia: The Australian stuntwoman who captivated Indians |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68271363 |access-date=2025-09-28 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Death==
Nadia died on 9 January 1996, soon after her 88th birthday,<ref name=":0" /> due to age-related diseases.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

==Legacy==
According to the BBC, Nadia was "perhaps the first foreigner to attain cult status in Bollywood".<ref name=":0" />

In 1993, Nadia's grandnephew, [[Riyad Vinci Wadia]], made a documentary of her life and films, called ''Fearless: The Hunterwali Story''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 May 1994 |title=Inspired, absorbed, exhausted... |work=Filmnews |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213731560 |access-date=12 May 2023}}</ref> After watching the documentary at the 1993 [[Berlin International Film Festival]], Dorothee Wenner, a German freelance writer, and film curator, wrote ''Fearless Nadia: The true story of Bollywood's original stunt queen'', which was subsequently translated into English in 2005.<ref>{{cite news |title=Wat a stunt! |url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/03/28/stories/2005032801480100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050512192048/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/03/28/stories/2005032801480100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 May 2005 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=28 March 2005 |access-date=22 November 2015}}</ref> In [[Vishal Bharadwaj]]'s Hindi film ''[[Rangoon (2017 Hindi film)|Rangoon]]'', the role played by [[Kangana Ranaut]] was inspired by Nadia.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rangoon—The story of the fiery 'Hunterwali'! |url=http://www.newsx.com/entertainment/44307-rangoon-the-story-of-the-fiery-hunterwali |work=Newsx.com |date=22 October 2016 |access-date=20 January 2017}}</ref>

To commemorate her 100th birthday, in 2015 the Government of India issued a postage stamp with her likeness.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

On 8 January 2018, Google displayed a doodle paying tribute to Fearless Nadia's 110th birthday. The artist commissioned for the doodle was the Indian comic illustrator Devaki Neogi.<ref name="Google 2018">{{cite web |title=Fearless Nadia's 110th Birthday |date=8 January 2018 |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/fearless-nadias-110th-birthday/ |access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="Krishna 2018">{{cite web |last=Krishna |first=Navmi |title=Google Doodle celebrates Bollywood's Fearless Nadia |website=The Hindu |date=8 January 2018 |url=http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/google-doodle-celebrates-bollywoods-fearless-nadia/article22394881.ece |access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref> In the same year, the University of Melbourne and the Australia India Institute published a collection of original essays entitled ''Fearless Nadia Occasional Papers''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-135381 |title=Fearless Nadia Papers |date=2011 |publisher=Australia India Institute |editor-last=University of Melbourne |location=Melbourne, Vic}}</ref>

==Filmography (selected)==
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1935
! scope="row" | ''[[Hunterwali]] (A Woman with a Whip)''
| Princess Madhuri a.k.a. Hunterwali
|
|-
| 1936
! scope="row" | ''[[Miss Frontier Mail]]''
| Savita a.k.a. Miss Frontier Mail
|
|-
| 1938
! scope="row" | ''[[Lutaru Lalna]] (Dacoit Damsel or The Dacoit Girl)''
| Indira
|
|-
| 1939
! scope="row" | ''[[Punjab Mail (film)|Punjab Mail]]''
|
|
|-
| 1940
! scope="row" | ''[[Diamond Queen (1940 film)|Diamond Queen]]''
| Madhurika
|
|-
| 1941
! scope="row" | ''[[Bambaiwali]] (The Girl from Bombay)''
|
|
|-
| 1942
! scope="row" | ''[[Jungle Princess]]''
|
|
|-
| 1942
! scope="row" | ''[[Muqabala]]''
| Madhuri
|
|-
| 1943
! scope="row" | ''[[Hunterwali Ki Beti]]''
| Princess Madhuri a.k.a. Hunterwali
|
|-
| 1943
! scope="row" | ''[[Mauj]]''
|
|
|-
| 1948
! scope="row" | ''[[11 O'Clock]]''
| Lakshmi
|
|-
| 1949
! scope="row" | ''[[Dhoomketu]] (The Comet)''
|
|
|-
| 1953
! scope="row" | ''[[Jungle Ka Jawahar]] (Hero of the Forest)''
| Mala
|
|-
| 1956
! scope="row" | ''Jungle Queen''
|
|
|-
|1956
!Baghdad Ka Jadu
|Yasmina
|
|-
| 1968
! scope="row" | ''[[Khiladi (1968 film)|Khiladi]]''
|
|
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Fearless Nadia}}
*{{IMDb name|0269884}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131006100724/http://nfaipune.nic.in/hunterwali.htm Hunterwali images]
*[http://www.universetale.com/fearless-nadia-the-first-stunt-woman-of-hindi-cinema/ Fearless Nadia]
*''[https://www.acmi.net.au/works/94136--fearless-the-hunterwali-story/ Fearless: The Hunterwali story]''
*{{citation |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/evans-mary-ann-nadia-29918 |title=Mary Ann (Nadia) Evans (1908–1996) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=12 Sep 2024}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fearless Nadia}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:Actresses from Perth, Western Australia]]
[[Category:Australian film actresses]]
[[Category:Australian stunt performers]]
[[Category:Indian film actresses]]
[[Category:Indian stunt performers]]
[[Category:Actresses in Hindi cinema]]
[[Category:Australian emigrants to India]]
[[Category:Indian people of Australian descent]]
[[Category:Naturalised citizens of India]]
[[Category:People who lost Australian citizenship]]
[[Category:Wadia family]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian actresses]]

Fearless Nadia - Revision history

Nayeem at 04:53, 29 November 2025