Film and theatre actress Uttara Baokar passes away at 79

Uttara Baokar in a still from the song `Ore Piya`. She played Madhuri Dixit`s mother in the film `Aaja Nachle`

Actress Uttara Baokar has passed away at the age of 79. She leaves behind a sizeable body of work in theatre, film and television. In 1984, she won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. She acted in several notable plays. She played the role of Padmavati in 'Mukyhamantri', Mena in 'Mena Gurjari', Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello, the mother in playwright Girish Karnad's 'Tughlaq', the nautch girl in 'Chhote Saiyad Bade Saiyad' and the lead role of Umrao in 'Umrao Jaan'.

After working extensively in theatre, she started her film/TV career with Shyam Benegal's 'Yatra' and Govind Nihalani's 'Tamas'. She won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Mrinal Sen's 'Ek Din Achanak.' In 1978, she also directed Jaywant Dalvi's play 'Sandhya Chhaya', in Hindi translation by Kusum Kumar. She has also appeared in Marathi films like 'Doghi' (1995) with Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Renuka Daftardar, 'Uttarayan' (2005), 'Shevri' (2006) and 'Restaurant' (2006), with Sonali Kulkarni.

She was also seen in a small role as Madhuri Dixit's mother in the film 'Aaja Nachle', and had a brief appearance in the hit song 'Ore Piya'.

Uttara was an alumna of the National School of Drama (NSD), Delhi, under Ebrahim Alkazi, graduating in 1968. She also worked in TV shows like Udaan, Antaral, X Zone, Rishtey Kora Kaagaz, Nazarana, Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, Kashmakash Zindagi Ki and Jabb Love Hua.