Chennai: Veteran south Indian actress Chithra, who was known for her work in Malayalam cinema, passed away on Saturday at the age of 56.As per the reports, the actress suffered a cardiac arrest.
Chitra was living with her family in Chennai's Saligramam area. She is survived by her husband Vijayaraghavan and daughter Mahalakshmi. Meanwhile, her sudden demise has shocked the film industry.
The actress, who was popularly known as "Nallennai" Chithra, had worked in over 100 Tamil and Malayalam films and had shared screen space with renowned actors like Prem Nazir and Mohanlal.
The actress made her acting debut as a child artist with K. Balachander's Tamil film "Apoorva Raagangal" in 1975. The movie featured Kamal Haasan, Srividya, and also had superstar Rajinikanth making his debut and had fetched the director a National Award for the best feature film in Tamil that year.
Her first debut film as an adult was opposite Mohanlal and Prem Nazir in the movie Attakalasham which was released in 1983. Some of her outstanding performances include roles Pathamudayam (1985), Kalikkalam (1990), and Devasuram (1993).
However, Chitra stopped acting at the peak of her career in the late 90s due to personal reasons. Later, she discontinued films after marriage. It was recently that she made a come back on the Tamil small screen.
Actor Prithviraj Sukumaran took to his Instagram account on Saturday to pay condolences. Sharing a picture of the yesteryear actress, he wrote: "Rest in Peace."