Golden Girls of the Golden Era


Madhubala


Nargis


Nutan


Meena Kumari


Vyjayanthimala


Waheeda Rehman


Mala Sinha


Sadhana


Asha Parekh


Sharmila Tagore


Saira Banu


Mumtaz

More Heroines of the Golden Era


Padmini


Nanda


Tanuja


Leena Chandravarkar


Babita


Suchitra Sen


Priya Rajvanash


Vimmi


Kum Kum


Bina Rai

Heroines of the 1970s


Hema Malini


Rekha


Raakhee


Zeenat Aman


Parveen Babi


Reena Roy


Moushumi Chatterjee


Neetu Singh


Jaya Bhaduri


Shabana Azmi


Smita Patel


Dimple Kapadia

More Heroines of the 1970s


Simi Gerewal


Farida Jalal


Vidya Sinha


Yogeeta Bali


Bindiya Goswami


Ranjeeta Kaur


Zarina Wahab


Rameshwari


Lakshmi


Simple Kapadia


Kaajal Kiran


Sulakshana Pandit

Heroines of the 1980s


Poonam Dhillon


Padmini Kolhapure


Rati Agnihotri


Anita Raaj


Tina Munim


Meenakshi Sheshadri


Jaya Prada


Sridevi


Madhuri Dixit

More Heroines of the 1980s


Mandakini


Farah


Salma Agha


Sarika


Deepti Naval


Vijayta Pandit


Divya Rana


Kim


Amrita Singh


Neelam

I would include:

Leena Chandrawarker (enough fan following)
Nanda
Suchitra Sen
Helen may not be counted as a heroine, but has, by far, the max number of films.
Diviya Bharati (may be she doesn't qualify as heroine of the Yesteryears, but she died untimely death, at the peak of her career, long time ago and may have been forgotten).

BTW, it shows how few heroines have there been in Hindi films. They all can be counted on finger tips. Heroes were a plenty.

Madhuri Dixit for the 1980s - Debuted in 1984

Classic Vamps of the Yesteryears


Helen


Shashikala


Bindu


Asha Sachdev


Aruna Irani

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Fat Comedienne of the Yesteryears


Manorama


Tun Tun


Guddi Maruti

Yes, Helen for outlasting heroines from 50's, 60's & 70's and to certain extent Padmini for giving some big hits in early 60's with Jis desh mein ganga behti hai, Aashiq,Singapore,Amardeep,Paigham.

Tribute to Bollywood Mothers of the Yesteryears


Nirupa Roy


Lalita Pawar


Nadira


Kamini Kaushal


Durga Khote


Leela Misra


Achala Sachdev


Indrani Mukherjee


Urmila Bhatt


Sulochana


Sudha Chopra


Dina Pathak


Veena

I quite liked Tina Munim. Madhuri was the best in the 80's. And Juhi Chawla was from the 80's too! And where's Neelam?...or is this thread for the best actresses?

I hope I can get credit for mentioning this top heroine that every one has forgotten so far.-----------NIMMI.

She was vying for the top slot in competition to Madhu Bala, Vyjanti Mala et al and became very choosy to pick the right project that will get her the top slot. This is by her own statement. She never got the role she was seeking and instead the producers thought she was not interested in films any more. Eventually evey one forgot about her.

She did manage extremely prestigeous project 'LOVE AND GOD', but what happened to it, every one knows. It took few decades and many key personelle deaths and replacements before film got released and flopped. In the meanwhile, only role Nimmi got was that of side heroine in Mere Mehboob.

She did act in some really big movies of her times such as Raj Kapoor's BARSAAT and Mehboob Khan's AAN (India's first color flick?). She was also in URAN KHATOLA with Dilip Kumar. She was half decent IMO, though the most radiant of 'em all would have to be Nutan and Madhubala.

What about actresses like Amita (with Shammi Kapoor in some movies), fat arse Kalpana(PROFESSOR, PYAR KIYE JA). Usha Kiran (Tanvi Azmi's mom) was a favourite with Hrishikesh Mukherjee & Bimal Roy and Nalini Jaywant (starred with Dev Anand at his peak).

But most of above are from the black & white era.

And another side heroine role in, if any one remembers, Pooja Ke Phool (Dharminder, Mala Sinha, Pran, Nimmi).



Also in Daag, opposite Dilip Kumar (Ae Mere Dil Kahin Aur Chal by Talat Mehmood) and a few opposite Bharat Bhushan including Angulimaal. I guess there were a few more opposite Dilip Kumar.