Ex-actress, director Vijaya Nirmala dies at 73

HYDERABAD: Veteran actress and director, and wife of actor Krishna, Vijaya Nirmala, suffered a heart attack and passed away on Wednesday night. She was 73. Nirmala was ailing for a while and was admitted to hospital. She was a Guinness record holder having directed 44 films as a women director. She achieved this distinction in 2002. She acted in 200 films in Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films.
Nirmala was born in Chennai.Her mother hailed from Guntur. She was introduced to the silver screen in 1950 at age seven through the film ‘Mrithyu Rekha’ in Tamil. Her first film in Telugu, Panduranga Mahathyam, in which she acted at age 12, garnered huge appreciation. She took on the role of a ‘prince’ in the film. She was introduced as a heroine in ‘Rangularaatnam’. In 2008, she was awarded the Raghupathi Venkaiah by Andhra Pradesh government.
Nirmala married actor Krishna and used to direct his films too. Her first film as a director was ‘Meena’ in 1971. Her role in ‘Alluri Sitaramaraju’ essayed with Krishna in the lead got the pair their encomiums. Some of her famous works include ‘Pandanti Kapuram’, ‘Mosagallaku Mosagadu’, ‘Marina Manishi’, ‘Kurukshetram’ and ‘Thathamanavadu’.