Born in Rawalpindi on April 3rd, 1937, of Hindu-English parentage, Vinita spent the first seven years of her life in Kashmir. Educated at various hill-station schools, Vini came to Bombay in November 1954, some time after she had done her Senior Cambridge in Bangalore. In Bangalore, she had been a member of the Bangalore Amateur Dramatic Society (the B.A.D.S.) and appeared on the stage in Tagore’s “Sacrifice” and one of J. B. Priestley’s plays.