Nafisa Ali was born in Kolkata, the daughter of Ahmed Ali, a Bengali Muslim, by his wife Philomena Torresan, a Roman Catholic of Anglo-Indian heritage. Nafisa's paternal grandfather, S. Wajid Ali, was a prominent Bengali writer. Her paternal aunt (father's sister) was Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, a Pakistani journalist and feminist. Nafisa is also related to the decorated Bangladeshi freedom fighter and soldier Bir Pratik Akhtar Ahmed. Nafisa's mother is now settled in Australia.

Nafisa went to Sr. Cambridge from La Martiniere Calcutta. She has also studied Vedanta taught by Swami Chinmayananda, who started the center Chinmaya Mission of World Understanding.

Her husband is the renowned polo player and Arjuna awardee, retired Col R.S. Sodhi. After marriage she chose to stop working and focus on her three children: daughters Armana, Pia and son Ajit. After a break of 18 years she returned to the film industry.

Nafisa Ali has accomplishments in several fields. She was the national swimming champion from 1972-1974, in 1976 she represented India at the Miss International contest & was declared the 2nd runner-up. Ali was also a jockey at the Calcutta Gymkhana in 1979.

Acting career

She has acted in several Bollywood films, the notable ones being Junoon (1979) with Shashi Kapoor, Major Saab with Amitabh Bachchan (1998), Bewafaa (2005), Life In A... Metro (2007) and Yamla Pagla Deewana (2010) with Dharmendra.

She has also acted in a Malayalam film called Big B (2007) with Mammootty, and is associated with Action India, an organisation working to spread AIDS awareness.

Political career

Nafisa Ali contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully from South Kolkata. On 5 April 2009, she contested the Lok Sabha election from Lucknow on the Samajwadi Party ticket after Sanjay Dutt's disqualification by the Supreme Court on the basis of a prior conviction. She then rejoined the Indian National Congress party in November 2009 and apologised to Sonia Gandhi for contesting on the Samajwadi Party ticket.^[4]

She is married to Colonel Sodhi a polo player who won the Arjuna Award.^[3]

In September 2005, she was appointed the chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI).

• List of Indian women athletes page