One of world’s ‘most beautiful women’ dies

Though the film didn’t do well at the box office,it won the National Award for Best Film and Naidu’s sensitive performance was noticed.

However,what marked the true beginning of her brief yet impressive career was her iconic role in R K Nayyar’s Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke in 1963,with Sunil Dutt.

This performance also brought her to the notice of celebrated Hollywood filmmaker James Ivory who cast her in his crossover film The Householder,opposite a young Shashi Kapoor. She later did a small role for Merchant Ivory Productions’ The Guru in 1969.

Despite such success and being named as one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world by Vogue,Naidu remained a recluse. Naidu married early to ‘Tikki’ Oberoi,scion of the Oberoi Group of Hotels. The marriage was tumultuous and did not last. She even lost custody of her twin daughters.

Naidu remarried her childhood sweetheart,poet Dom Moraes,but the marriage lasted 10 years and added to her traumatic personal life.