Chetan Anand gave her the role of the leading heroine in his film "Neecha Nagar". This movie was done by her before marriage and released in 1946. She quoted in an interview, when asked about why her name was changed from Uma to Kamini: "Chetan's wife Uma Anand was also part of the film. My name also being Uma, he wanted a different name for me. I asked him to give me a name beginning with 'K' to match with the names of my daughters Kumkum and Kavita." She won an award at the Montreal Film Festival for her performance in her debut film.