Hyderabad: Veteran actress Jamuna (87) passed away on Friday in Hyderabad after a brief illness. He was 86 years old.
Family sources said that he breathed his last at his residence.
Jamuna has acted in around 200 films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi and has a son and a daughter.
He was born on August 30, 1936 in Hampi, Karnataka, but his parents Nippani Srinivasa Rao and Kausalya Devi moved to Andhra Pradesh. He received his primary education at Duggirala in Guntur district and was a theater artist during his school days.
Jamuna, whose real name is Jana Bai, made her acting debut at the age of 16 with Puttillu (1953), directed by Garikapari Rajarao.
LV Prasad’s Missamma (1955) gave him credit. NT Rama Rao, Savitri and Akkineni Nageswara Rao played the lead roles. In a career spanning four decades, he has portrayed various roles and acted alongside famous actors of his time.
Jamuna acted in 11 Hindi films. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for Milan (1967) starring Sunil Dutt and Nutan. It is a remake of the Telugu film Mooga Manasulu (1964), starring Jamuna alongside Nageswara Rao and Savitri.
Influenced by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he joined the Congress Party in 1980 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rajahmundry in 1989, but left politics after the defeat in 1991. He later joined the BJP and campaigned for the party in the late 1990s.
