Mandakini (born Yasmeen Joseph) was born to a British father and a Kashmiri mother. At the young age of 22, she was discovered by legendary film director Raj Kapoor and given the screen name "Mandakini". Mandakini got her first movie in the Hindi film industry when she was cast in the lead role in the 1985 movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili by film producer-director Raj Kapoor opposite his youngest son Rajiv Kapoor. The film was a blockbuster, and it earned Mandakini a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. She caused a stir after she was seen partially nude in two sequences of the film.She then 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 could not recreate the success of her first movie. The actress decided to bid adieu to the Bollywood industry after her 1996 film Zordaar.