Popular Mollywood actor K. P. A. C. Lalitha passed away on Tuesday at the age of 74.
Lalitha was admitted to a hospital recently due to ill-health, but was brought back to her son, director-actor Siddharth's house in Kochi, where she breathed her last.
Born in 1947 in Aranmula of Pathanamthitta district of Kerala as Maheshwari Amma, she beggan her career in performance arts when she was 10 years old, acting in plays. She later joined the drama troupe Kerala People's Arts Club and assumed the stage name Lalitha.
She made her entry into cinema with the 1969 movie Koottukudumbam, directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan. The prefix K.P.S.C was added to her stage name as there was another actor by the same name.
Ever since her debut in 1969, K. P. A. C. Lalitha was an integral part of the Mollywood cinema, playing the affable mother, jovial neighbour, or just a nice person in general in over 500 movies and and several TV serials. Some of her most notable works include Varavelpu (1989), Kottayam Kunjachan (1990), Godfather (1991), Bharatham (1991), Vietnam Colony (1993), Manichithrathazhu (1993) Thenmavin Kombath (1994), Thilakkam (2003), Bhramaram (2009) and Charlie (2015). Her notable works in TV include the popular comedy series Thatteem Mutteem and Chakkappazham.
She was a regular presence in popular director Sathyan Anthikad's films, including Manassinakkare, Rasathanthram, and Njan Prakashan.
The veteren actor has also made her presence felt Tamil cinema, with Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997), Maniratnam's Alaipayuthey (2000) and Kaatru Veliyidai (2017).
The actor has played mother to most of the leading actors in Malayalam cinema, including Mohanlal (CID Unnikrishnan B.A., B.Ed., Madampi) Mammootty (The King), Jayaram (Veendum Chila Veettukaryangal), Suresh Gopi (Nariman), Dileep (Paappi Appacha) and Kalabhavan Mani (Lokanathan IAS).
She won the national award for the best supporting actor for her role in the 1990 movie Amaram, starring Mammootty. The next national award was 10 years later, for the movie Shantham.
She won the Kerala state award for second best actor four times— 1975, (Neela Ponman, Onnum Lelle), 1978 (Aaravam), 1990 (Amaram) and 1991 (Kadinjool Kalyanam, Godfather, Sandhesam). Shd has several other awards to her kitty, including the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award and SIIMA Lifetime Achievement Award.
She was the chairperson of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. She also published an autobiography, 'Katha Thudarum', which won the Cherukad Award in 2013.
She was married to the highly acclaimed Mollywood director late Bharathan, and has has a daughter Sreekutty and a son Sidharth, who began his movie career as an actor, but switched to direction later.
