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Bhubaneswar, June 16: The Oriya film industry has lost a veteran in Manimala Devi. The actor passed away at a private hospital here, Thursday. Her son Shankar Ghosh has confirmed the report.
The 90-year-old actor had been under treatment for age-related complications at the hospital since March. She suffered from severe chest congestion.
Rumours had been floating since Wednesday that the actor had passed away and several film personalities had rushed to the hospital to offer condolences. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, too, had initially tweeted a condolence message for the actor. He deleted the tweet later and wished Manimala an early recovery.
Manimala has had an illustrious career, in course of which she has won several awards. She won the ‘Jayadev Purashkar’ — the highest award in the state for cinema — in 2000. She has also acted in about 40 feature films and 100 plays.
She had debuted in the film ‘Sri Loknath’ in 1960. The movie directed by Prafulla Sengupta had won the President’s Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Oriya at the 8th National Film Awards.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi, too, has honoured the actor with a lifetime achievement award for her dedication and priceless contribution to art and culture.
Manimala was born in Balibisi village of Cuttack. Her career as an actor started with a role in the play ‘Jaydev’. She was given the opportunity to act at the age of nine by legendary actress Radha Rani Devi, although she had no formal education or training in acting.
Her performances in plays such as ‘Parakalam’ and ‘Jhanja’ were unforgettable and she received the best stage artiste award from the Prajatantra Prachara Samiti in 1958.
Some of her acclaimed movies were ‘Laxmi’ (1962), ‘Surjya Mukhi’ and ‘Jeevan Sathi’ (1963), ‘Abhinetri’, ‘Malajanha’ (1965) and ‘Klanta Aparanha’ in 1986. She also featured in two films directed by Nirad Mohapatra and they bagged the president’s award for the second best film at the national level in 1983.