Smita Patil

Then there is Smita Patil who passed away in 1986 at the shockingly young age of 31. The actress who was a fascinating amalgam of a steel-strong will as well as heart-tugging vulnerability, deserves the 'amazing actress' legend that has been built around her.Smita was the daughter of a minister and a social-worker mother. Born in Pune, Maharashtra, she studied at a Marathi medium school. Her first tryst with the camera was as a television newscaster. Her dusky beauty and large eyes drew attention. Always a bit of a rebel, she would grin when people complimented her on looking lovely in the saris she sported for the telecasts because minutes before going on air, she would have hurriedly wrapped the sari over her jeans.
Smita shared a special relationship with the camera and, incidentally, she was very good behind the camera too: an exhibition of photographs clicked by her was held posthumously.
One of the major beneficiaries of the mid-1970s efflorescence of the art movement in Hindi cinema, Smita's film career got off the ground courtesy mentor Shyam Benegal. After he cast her in the children's film Charandas Chor [1975], and in a small role in Nishant [1975], Smita seemed to suddenly hold a monopoly over Benegal. For a while, she even seemed to have won him away from Shabana Azmi, with whom the filmmaker had done some excellent work in Ankur and Nishant.
Smita sprang to the spotlight with Benegal's Manthan [1977], where she played a Harijan woman who spearheads a revolt at the milk co-operative. Next, Benegal cast her in a more demanding role --- Bhumika [1977]. A fictionalised biography of Indian actress Hansa Wadkar, Bhumika won Smita the National Award for Best Actress. Smita played the complex role of an actress struggling to lead her life on her own terms (through her chequered history with four men --- Amol Palekar, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri) and imbued it with an insight that belied her 22 years!
As long as it revealed the psyche of her character, Smita was game to go the extra mile --- she did a bathing scene in the open for Chakra, some intense love-making scenes in Aakrosh and even kissed Kulbhushan Kharbanda's toes in Arth.