Sadhana was born on September 2, 1941 in Karachi, Sind, Pakistan. She is a popular Bollywood actress and the cousin of actor Hari Shivdasani, who happens to be the father of actress Babita Kapoor. She was the only child of her parents and belonged to a Sindhi descent. Her mother taught her privately at home until she turned 8 year. They came down to Mumbai after the partition of India in 1947. She was married to director R.K.Nayyar in 1965. After thirty years of their marriage the director who died in the year 1995.

Career of Sadhana
It was her cousin Hari, who helped Sadhana to enter films. She was a chorus girl in Raj Kapoor`s `Shree 420.` She played a second lead role in a Sindhi film called `Abana` (1958). This film though did not bring her into the limelight, but her acting skills got highlighted and she was enrolled into an acting school. Film producer Sashadhar Mukherjee ran the school, and also had another aspiring actress named Asha Parekh as a student. When Mukherjee was working upon the film `Dil Deke Dekho` (1959), he gave director Nasir Hussain a choice between Sadhana and Asha to play the heroine; Hussain selected Asha.

However, for his next project, `Love in Simla` (1960), the director, R.K. Nayyar (Raj Kapoor`s assistant) was again given a choice to choose his heroine and he chose Sadhana. In this film, she was paired with Mukherjee`s own son Joy Mukherjee in the film.

R.K. pursued Sadhana to style her hair with a fringe alike Audrey Hepburn and during that era, this hairstyle became a craze and is still referred to as the "Sadhana cut" in the country. Sadhana`s film `Mere Mehboob` (1963) with Rajendra Kumar was the one that proved to be her turning point in career. She acted in another blockbuster movie `Woh Kaun Thi` (1964), directed by Raj Khaosla, for which she got the first Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. Khosla was so fascinated with her performance that he immediately decided to star her in two more big-budget mystery films, `Mera Saaya` (1966) and `Anita` (1967). Again, she earned her second Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for the blockbuster `Waqt` (1965).

In the late 1960s, she suffered from a thyroid problem that affected her eyes and thus distorted her looks. She went to Boston for treatment and had a successful recovery, but film offers did not come up as before. She did only three hit films in the period, namely `Ek Phool Do Mali` (1969), `Inteqaam` (1969) and `Geeta Mera Naam` (1974), which she partially directed. After this she retired from acting. She has even formed a production company along with her husband. She has also directed a movie `Geetaa Mera Naam starring Dimple Kapadia.

Filmography of Sadhana