Mumbai, 4 Oct

Veteran actor Sandhya Shantaram, wife of late filmmaker V Shantaram, has died due to age-related ailments, her family said on Saturday. She was 94.

Sandhya Shantaram was the third wife of the legendary filmmaker and was cast in as the lead in several of his films including ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ (1957), ‘Navrang’ (1959), ‘Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje’ (1955), and ‘Pinjra’ (1972).

Kiran Shantaram, V Shantaram’s son from his second marriage with Jayashree, said the veteran actor breathed her last on Friday night.

“‘She passed away last night at 10 pm at Rajkamal Studio, where she had been living. She had been unwell for the past four to five years, and was suffering from fever and cough recently,” Kiran Shantaram told PTI.

“We would often tell her that she would be with us till she turned 100. The saddest part was that she did not have children of her own with my father, but she treated me and my sisters like her own. She was very sweet, a wonderful cook, and would lovingly feed us,” he said.

The last rites were held this morning at Shivaji Park crematorium.

A popular actor of the 1950s and 60s, Sandhya Shantaram worked predominantly in Hindi and Marathi films. Some of her most notable films also include ‘Sehra’, ‘Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli’, and ‘Amar Bhoopali’.