SSC
Who was the first Indian film actress to receive the Padma Shri award?
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Answer: Option D — Nargis Dutt
Detailed Solution
Nargis (born Fatima Rashid, 1929-1981) became the first Indian film actress to be awarded the Padma Shri, in 1958. This was soon after the release of her most famous film, "Mother India" (1957).
About Nargis:
- She began acting as a child and became one of the greatest stars of Hindi cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.
- Her famous films include "Andaz" (1949), "Barsaat" (1949), "Awaara" (1951) and "Shree 420" (1955), many of them with Raj Kapoor.
In Mehboob Khan's "Mother India" (1957), she played Radha, a poor village woman who struggles to raise her sons. The film became India's first official submission to be nominated for the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Foreign Language Film (1958). It lost by one vote.
She received the Best Actress award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for "Mother India".
She married the actor Sunil Dutt, who played her son in "Mother India", in 1958. Their son is the actor Sanjay Dutt.
She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1980, becoming one of the first film actresses in Parliament.
She died of cancer in 1981. The Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was set up in her memory.
The "Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration" is given at the National Film Awards in her honour.
Other "firsts" in Indian cinema:
- Devika Rani: first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1969); called the "First Lady of Indian Screen".
- Raja Harishchandra (1913): the first full-length Indian feature film, by Dadasaheb Phalke.
- Alam Ara (1931): the first Indian sound film.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Madhubala, famous for "Mughal-e-Azam", did not receive the Padma Shri.
- ✗Meena Kumari, the "Tragedy Queen", did not receive the Padma Shri.
- ✗Devika Rani received the Padma Shri in 1958 too, but she is best known as the first Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner (1969); Nargis is usually listed as the first actress in exam books.
Quick tip
Remember: First film actress with Padma Shri = Nargis Dutt (1958), "Mother India" (1957, first Indian Oscar nomination); first Dadasaheb Phalke Award = Devika Rani (1969).
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Firsts in India & World — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Firsts in India & World, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the first persons and events in India and the world: the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to hold major offices, the first to climb Everest or reach space, and India's first institutions, newspapers, railways and satellites. It also covers the largest, longest, highest and smallest records in India and the world. These are pure memory questions, so revise them as short lists by theme: first women, first in sports, first in science and space, and first in governance. Be careful with the exact wording, such as 'first Indian' versus 'first person of Indian origin', or 'first woman President' versus 'first woman Prime Minister', since options are often designed to exploit this. Practise the firsts in India and the world questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.