From facial paralysis to playing evil woman: Timeline of Ramayan's Manthara aka Lalita Pawar's tragic life

Lalita Pawar, who played the role of Manthara in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, had many successes to boast of during her lifetime. It includes her work in the epic serial and several films such as Shri 420, Dahej, Netaji Palkar, Anari etc. What many might not know, however, is that the actress' life altered drastically after she was accidentally slapped too hard by her co-actor on the sets of a film. Here's a brief glance at some of the main incidents of her life....

Lalita Pawar was born as Amba Laxman Rao on April 18, 1916 to a well-to-do but orthodox family. She started acting at the age of nine and her first film was Raja Harishchandra directed by Y.D. Sarpotdar. She went on to do many successful films during the period.

In the mid-1930s, Lalita Pawar tied the knot with filmmaker Ganpatrao and acted in his movies. However, their marriage ended in divorce as he took a liking to her younger sister. Lalita Pawar later married Raj Kumar Gupta, who was also a filmmaker.

For a sequence in Jung-E-Azadi, Lalita Pawar's co-actor had to slap her. Unfortunately, it landed too hard on her face and resulted in partial facial paralysis and a permanent squint in her eye (as her nerve near the eye burst).

The accident, whose treatment continued for the next three years, altered the course of her career. From playing the lead roles on-screen, Lalita Pawar had to switch to character roles. While many would have lost hope had they been in her place, she made full use of every opportunity and gained fame for playing supporting parts in several films.

Many of her later roles consisted of playing the wicked mother-in-law. It was in the film Dahej in 1950 that she played the ruthless mother-in-law. The role sealed her image and made her someone who audiences loved to hate.

Her successful portrayal of negative roles on-screen led Ramanand Sagar to cast Pawar as Manthara, Kaikey's maid servant, in Ramayan. This again led her to gain popularity along with several other films she did during the time.

Pawar was honored by the Government of India as the first lady of Indian cinema in 1961. She also received the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in Anari, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

On 24 February 1998, Lalita Pawar died in Aundh, Pune where she had been staying for some time. She was suffering from mouth cancer.