Padmapriya (actress)

Padmapriya ಪದ್ಮಪ್ರಿಯ
Born	Padmalochani Karnataka, India
Died	16 November 1997[1] T. Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Actress, Producer
Years active	1971–1995
Spouse(s)	Srinivasan (divorced)[2]
Children	Vasumathi (daughter)[3]

Padmapriya (born Padmalochani) was a predominant Kannada and Tamil actress also acted in few Malayalam and Telugu movies. She was one of the popular and beautiful actresses during mid of 1970's and early 1980's. She acted with legendary actor Dr.Rajkumar, Anant Nag, Dr.Vishnuvardhan, Srinath and Lokesh in Kannada movies. Some of her famous Kannada movies include Operation Diamond Racket, Thayige Thakka Maga, Shankar Guru, Narada Vijaya, Baadada Hoo, Bangarada Gudi and Oorige Upakari. In Tamil, Mohana Punnagai, Vaazhnthu Kaattugiren, Kuppathu Raja, Aayiram Jenmangal, Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan and Vaira Nenjam are some of her notable films. She enters Tamil industry by making debut in Karotti Kannan which was released on 1975. She had extremely successful career in Tamil films especially between 1975 and 1981 as lead heroine. She acted opposite Sivaji Ganesan in Vaira Nenjam and Mohana Punnagai. She was paired with M. G. Ramachandran in Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan as second lead heroine portraying her role as a princess.

Personal life

Padmapriya was born in Karnataka to a Kannada speaking family. Besides her mother tongue, she is also fluent speaking in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. She got married in 1983 to Srinivasan, the couple have a daughter named Vasumathi. She didn't lead a happy married life, right after a year of living together, the couple filed a divorce which was dragged for a long time. After a few years, the court agreed to give them a mutual divorce. Padmapriya stayed with her parents for 13 years at T. Nagar.^[4] She died on 16 November 1997 due to heart disease as well as kidney failure.

Partial filmography

Padmapriya belonged to the mid 70s. She actually competed with Lakshmi, Manjula, Aarathi, etc. And note that even these heroines faded away during late 80s. But she was not that popular (consistently acted) compared to those actresses. However, she has successfully acted at most 70 movies and mostly as leading heroine. Probably she had some health issues also (not sure about this, just got some news from people living in that era). But she was damn good with acting and in par with other top actresses, and not just a glam doll (She did put on bit of weight later, probably that was not a factor) If she indeed dubbed her own voice. Her last movie in Tamil was Thotta Chinungi where she had done a mother role. After 1995, the audience could not watch Padmapriya’s movies. Unfortunately, Padmapriya suffered a kidney failure which stopped the actress from working on any projects.^[5]

In order of languages in which she acted the most to least number of films.

References