Birthday Special: Lalita Pawar's Journey to Negative Roles

Today (April 18) is the birthday of 40s actress Lalita Pawar, who became famous with the role of Manthara in Ramanand Sagar's famous serial Ramayana. Lalita Panwar was one of those actresses of Hindi cinema, who earned a lot of fame in films as well as on TV. Lalita Pawar was born on 18 April 1916 in Nashik, and she died on 24 February 1998 in Pune.

Started work at the age of 12

In the Hindi cinema world, she was known by the name of Lalita, but you would be surprised to know that her real name was Amba Laxman Rao. Lalitha started in films as a child artist. For the first time, she appeared in a silent film without speaking, for which she got a fee of Rs 18. At the age of 12, in 1928, she acted in the film Raja Harishchandra.

Lalita Pawar used to sing songs too

Lalita Pawar was very glamorous and beautiful in her youth. She used to sing better than she used to act. Her song 'Neel abha me pyara gulab rahe, mere dil me pyara gulab rate in the 1935 film 'Himmate Mardaan' became very popular at that time. She was climbing the ladder of success when an incident happened with her due to which her face got spoiled.

In 1942, during the shooting of the film Jang-e-Azadi, actor Bhagwan Dada slapped Lalita. After this, she fell to the ground and blood oozed out from her ear. After this incident, the doctor gave her some wrong medicine which paralyzed the right side of her body.

Lalita Pawar's career was put on hold due to paralysis. Her right eye had shrunk and her face was disfigured. Now no one used to give her work with this face. After a long wait, she got a role in director SM Yusuf's film Grihasthi in 1948.

Lalita Pawar had two marriages. She first married Ganpat Rao Pawar and later she married producer Rajprakash Gupta. In 1990, Lalita Pawar was diagnosed with jaw cancer. Not only did she lose weight due to cancer, but her memory also began to weaken. Lalita Pawar took her last breath on 24th February 1998.