Usha Nadkarni (उषा नाडकर्णी), born Usha Kalbag on 13 September 1946 in Bombay (Mumbai), Maharashtra, is a veteran Indian actress and theatre artist who has worked in the Marathi and Hindi film and television industries since 1979. From childhood she loved acting and participated in cultural events during public Ganesh festivals, but her mother was firmly opposed to an acting career. She spent nine years working at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and then approximately fifteen years as a banker - completing a full corporate career - before finally entering the entertainment industry in her thirties. She married Anand Nadkarni (also identified as Ravindra Nadkarni in some sources) in the early 1970s; they subsequently separated. She has one child. Her film debut came with Sinhasan (1979, dir. Jabbar Patel, the landmark Marathi political drama) as Shanta. Over the following four decades she built an extraordinary filmography spanning Marathi, Hindi, and regional cinema, including Pratighaat (1987), Vaastav (1999, with Sanjay Dutt), Gundaraj (1995), Hathyar (2002), Deool (2011, dir. Umesh Kulkarni, which won the National Award for Best Marathi Film), Ventilator (2016, as Aatya), Yellow (2014), Agadbam (2010), Bhoothnath Returns (2014), and Rustom (2016). Her landmark television role was Savita Damodar Deshmukh in Pavitra Rishta (Zee TV, from 2009) - the manipulative mother-in-law of lead character Archana - for which she won two consecutive Zee Gold Awards and a BIG Television Award and was nominated as Best Evil Mother-in-Law at Zee Rishtey Awards. She also starred in Khulta Kali Khulena (Zee Marathi) as Parvati Aaji, and in 2015 headlined the stage show Londoncharya Aajibai. She later appeared in Molkarin Bai (Star Pravah), Ase He Sundar Amche Ghar (Sony Marathi), Premas Rang Yave (Sun Marathi), and Kaise Mujhe Tum Mil Gaye (Zee TV, as Dnyaneshwari Chitnis). In 2025, she competed on Celebrity MasterChef India Season 1 (Sony TV), finishing in seventh place. In April 2018, she entered Bigg Boss Marathi Season 1 - host Mahesh Manjrekar personally declared his wish that Usha win - becoming one of the oldest contestants in Bigg Boss history at age 71. She was evicted on Day 77 (Week 11), finishing ninth overall.

Iconic role of Savita Damodar Deshmukh in Zee TV's beloved daily soap Pavitra Rishta (2009+), for which she won the Zee Gold Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role (Female, 2011 and 2012) and the BIG Television Award for Favourite Teekha Character; Marathi films Sinhasan (1979), Deool (2011, National Award winner), Ventilator (2016), and Bhoothnath Returns (2014); stage show Londoncharya Aajibai (2015); Celebrity MasterChef India Season 1 (2025, finished 7th); becoming one of the oldest contestants ever on Bigg Boss Marathi Season 1 (2018); finishing ninth overall.

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