Mumbai, Aug 15 (IBNS): Veteran Bollywood actress Vidya Sinha, known for her roles as the graceful leading lady in many popular films of the 1970s playing often an independent minded office-going middle-class woman, passed away on Thursday. She was 71.
Sinha was suffering from a lung disorder, media report said.
She was mostly known for her roles in Basu Chatterjee's light-hearted films like Rajnigandha, Chhoti Si Baat and much later, Kirayadar, where she played the mother of Padmini Kolhapure.
In several of the films, appearing as the urban middle-class working woman, elegant in the floral printed sarees, availing public transport, often lost in a thought with a mind of her own, or in two minds about choosing a lover, she connected with a large section of audience without being the rebel with a cause or portraying a fiercely feminist character.
She also took long breaks in her acting career spanning nearly four decades.
Besides the Basu Chatterjee family entertainers (paired opposite Amol Palekar in some of the hit films), she also acted in B R Chopra films like Pati Patni Aur Woh (opposite Sanjeev Kumar) and several Bollywood mainstream films like Inkaar, a thriller, where she starred opposite Vinod Khanna.
She also acted in Gulzar's films like Kitaab opposite late Bengali film matinee idol Uttam Kumar.
She had starred in Karm with Rajesh Khanna and Shabana Azmi and in Mukti with Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor.
Her last Hindi film was Salman Khan starrer Bodyguard, which released in 2011.
Sinha began modelling and acting at the age of 18. She was also Miss Bombay.
She was married twice and her first husband- a Tamil Brahmin- had died in 1996. A few years later she married again in Australia where she had moved but that marriage ended in an acrinomy and legal battle.
She was last seen in a Star Plus television serial. "She would be remembered for her amazing grace," said an Indian film lover.
Image Credit: Wikimedia commons
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