Mumbai, Sep 24 — Bollywood star Jackie Shroff remembered veteran actress and Bharatanatyam dancer Padmini Ramachandran on her 20th death anniversary on Thursday.
Sharing a black-and-white picture of the legendary actress, Jackie paid tribute to the celebrated star whose career spanned over decades and was a part of more than 250 films across multiple Indian languages.
The post features a vintage picture of Padmini performing a classical dance pose, with the song “Chham Chham Ghungroo Bole” playing in the background.
The song, sung by Asha Bhosle and composed by Ravi with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi, is from the 1965 film Kaajal. Padmini performed the dance in the song, which remains one of the memorable classical-dance sequences associated with her screen career.
The actress passed away on September 24, 2006, aged 74, following a heart attack.
Talking about the actrsss, she was born in Thiruvananthapuram, and was one of the famed Travancore Sisters, alongside her elder sister Lalitha and younger sister Ragini. All three of them were trained classical dancers and went on to establish themselves in Indian cinema.
She appeared as a dancer in the Hindi film Kalpana in 1948, when she was around 16. The film marked the beginning of a career and she went on to work in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Russian-language cinema.
Her Hindi credits included films such as Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Aashiq, Mera Naam Joker, Amardeep, Payal, Afsana, Vaasna and Kaajal.
Her association with Raj Kapoor was particularly notable as she appeared opposite him in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Aashiq and Mera Naam Joker. She also worked with some of the biggest names of the era, including Dev Anand, Sivaji Ganesan, M.G. Ramachandran, N.T. Rama Rao and Prem Nazir.
One of her most celebrated performances came in the 1968 Tamil classic Thillana Mohanambal, in which she played a gifted dancer opposite Sivaji Ganesan.
After marrying US-based physician Ramachandran in 1961 and having a son, Padmini eventually stepped away from films to focus on her family. Her association with dance, however, continued.