Top Indian actress Padmini dies

Padmini made a mark in both Hindi and regional cinema

Well-known Indian actress and dancer Padmini has died in the southern city of Chennai.

The actress, who was 74, died of a heart attack in a hospital.

Padmini starred in more than 250 films during her decades-long career and was paired with some leading actors such as Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand.

She began her career at the age of 17 with a Hindi film, Kalpana, but soon moved on to regional-language cinema where she made a mark for herself.

During her career, Padmini was paired with famous film stars like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shivaji Ganesan and MG Ramachandran.

A successful star in Bollywood, Padmini was also fluent in all four southern Indian languages - Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu.

A dancer trained in various classical forms, most of her films contained dance sequences which became a pre-requisite of almost all Indian films in the later decades.

In two of her popular Bollywood films - Mera Naam Joker and Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai - she was paired against the legendary Bollywood star, Raj Kapoor.

But her most famous film was Thillana Mohanambal, a Tamil film where she plays a dancer pitted against a musician.

Padmini won several awards and the government of the former Soviet Union released a postage stamp to honour her acting and dancing skills.