Padmini

Padmini Biography

Padmini is a popular actress of South Indian movies during yesterdays. She is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer also. She has worked for more than 250 movies including Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. Padmini, with her elder sister Lalitha and her younger sister Ragini, are popularly known as "Travancore sisters". All these three sisters were trained classical dancers and actresses of cinema. She has close resemblance with her sister Ragini and also own close resemblance with actress Vaijayanthimala, whom she used to see as rivalry. In mannerisms and acting skills, these two actresses carried a lot of similarities. Popular actress, Sukumari is their cousin. Famous actress Shobana is her niece and actor Vineeth is also her close relative.

She was the second daughter of SreeThankappan Pillai and Saraswathi Amma and she was born in old Travancore. She learnt bharathanatyam from Vazhuvoor B. Ramaiah Pillai along with her two sisters and used to perform in live concerts from a younger age. They learnt Kathakali and Kerala Natanam styles from their guru.

Though a South Indian, she debut silver screen with a Bollywood movie – Kalpana in the year 1948 and she stayed in the limelight for about 30 years. In Tamil, she was most successfully paired with Sivaji Ganeshan and together they acted 59 films, indeed a great milestone. Thillana Mohanambaal, based on the life of a classical dancer is a remarkable movie of this amazing combination. She won Tamil state awards for this movie. She has also worked with M. G. Ramachandran, N. T. Rama Rao, Rajendra Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Satyan, Prem Nazir, Rajkumar, Gemini Ganesan and S. S. Rajendran. She has won Best actress award from Film Fans Association in 1954, 1959, 1961 and 1966.

Her Bollywood movies include – Jis des mein ganga behti hai, Payal (1957), Afsana (1966), Vaasna (1968), Mera naam joker (1971), Chanda Aur Bijli (1969) and Mahabharat. She was paired opposite Raj kapoor in Jis des mein ganga behti hai and Mera naam joker. Rajendra Kumar was the second hero of her in Mera naam joker. Jis des mein ganga behti hai is regarded as her best Hindi movie for which she got a Filmfare nomination. In 1966, she won Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for Kaajal. Her Malayalam movies include – Marthanda Varma, Kanchana, Ammalakkalu, Sneehaseema and Kaveri.

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Updated: July 08, 2018