Veteran actress Manimala Devi passes away

Bhubaneswar: Veteran theatre and film personality Manimala Devi passed away here at a private hospital on Thursday. The 90-year-old actress was undergoing treatment for old-age-related complications. Family sources said the veteran actor was suffering from severe chest congestion.

Several people from the Odia film industry, well-wishers and relatives rushed to the hospital to pay their last respects after the news of her death spread.

She has acted in over 40 feature films of which 14 films have bagged the national award, including her debut film ‘Sri Loknath’. In her long and illustrious career, she also acted in over 100 plays.

She was conferred with the prestigious ‘Jayadev Purashkar’- the state’s highest cine award - in the year 2000.

There was a false alarm last evening when a section of the regional media reported that the nonagenarian actress had passed away after battling for life in a private hospital here. The report turned out to be false.

Even Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had condoled the death of Manimala on micro-blogging site Twitter. Later Patnaik deleted the Tweet and wished her an early recovery in a subsequent post on the social media platform to avoid further embarrassment.