Veteran actress Sulochana, who typified the Bollywood ‘mother’, passes away at 94

Bollywood veteran actress Sulochana Latkar. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Veteran Hindi and Marathi film actress Sulochana Latkar, who gained recognition as the archetypal Bollywood mother in the 1960s and the 70s, passed away aged 94 after a prolonged illness at a Mumbai hospital on Sunday.

The actor was admitted to a private hospital in Dadar on May 8. Family sources said the actress passed away around 6.30 p.m. at the hospital.

Born in 1928 in Khadaklat in present-day Karnataka, she was known by her mononym ‘Sulochana’ and acted in more than 300 Marathi and Hindi films.

Along with actress Nirupa Roy, Sulochana, with her kindly mien and gentle bearing, became typecast as the ‘on-screen’ mother from the 1960s to the 1980s.

She started her career in the mid-1940s, playing the lead in several Marathi films including 1953’s Vahinichya Bangdya (Sister-in law’s bangles) and Sangtye Aika (Listen to what I’m saying) in 1959. 

However, it was as the on-screen mother of legendary icons including Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna, Dev Anand, Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan in several films of the 1960s and 1970s that Sulochana attained instant fame and recognition.

She starred in such hits as Kati Patang, Johnny Mera Naam, Reshma aur Shera, Roti, Kapdaa aur Makaan and Yaarana to name a few in a career that lasted more than six decades.

She was a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1999 and was awarded the Maharashtra Bhushan Award by the State government in 2009.

She is survived by her daughter Kanchan Ghanekar.

Her mortal remains will be kept at her house in Prabhadevi for last darshan and then the actor’s last rites will be performed at the cremation ground at Shivaji Park on Monday.

Tributes flowed from across the spectrum, with film personalities and politicians condoling Sulochana’s passing.

CM Eknath Shinde said that Sulochana Didi left her mark in Marathi and Hindi cinema, particularly in her essaying of the role of ‘mother’.

Paying fulsome tributes to her many performances on celluloid, CM Shinde said: “The death of veteran actress Sulochana Latkar who graced the film industry both on and off screen, has left us with a deep sense of loss. We have lost a ‘mother’. Both Marathi and Hindi film industries have lost a great actress who won the hearts of many with her effortless acting skills.”