Veteran actress Jamuna, co-star of NTR and Nageswara Rao, passes away

HYDERABAD: Veteran actress Jamuna passed away here on Friday after a brief illness. She was 86.

She breathed her last at her residence, family sources said.

Jamuna, who acted in about 200 movies in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi, is survived by a son and a daughter.

She was born at Hampi in Karnataka on August 30, 1936, but her parents Nippani Srinivasa Rao and Kowsalya Devi moved to Andhra Pradesh. She received her primary education at Duggirala in Guntur district and was a stage artist in her school days.

Jamuna, whose real name was Jana Bai, made her acting debut at the age of 16 with Puttillu (1953) directed by Garikapari Rajarao.

It was L. V. Prasad's Missamma (1955) which gave her recognition. She had played a supporting character in the film with the lead roles played by N. T. Rama Rao, Savitri and Akkineni Nageswara Rao. In a career spanning four decades, she portrayed a variety of roles and acted with these legendary actors of her time other top actors of her times.

Jamuna also acted in 11 Hindi films. She won FilmFare award for best supporting actress for Milan (1967) starring Sunil Dutt and Nutan. It was a remake of Telugu movie Mooga Manasulu (1964) which featured Jamuna along with Nageswara Rao and Savitri.

Impressed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, she joined the Congress party in 1980 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rajahmundry in 1989, but quit politics after the defeat in 1991. She later joined BJP and campaigned for the party in late 1990s.