Popular yesteryear actor Nallenai Chitra who has acted in several Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada films passed away on Saturday, August 21. She was 56. According to reports, Chitra, who was living with her family in Chennai’s Saligramam, suffered a sudden heart attack. 

Chitra was introduced as a child artiste by director K Balachander in his 1975 film Apoorva Raagangal, which starred Kamal Haasan, Srividya, and was Rajinikanth’s debut film. The film which is among Balachander’s biggest hits went on to win the National Award for the best feature film in Tamil.

Through the 80s and 90s, Chitra went on to star opposite big actors both in Malayalam and Tamil. She also acted as a child artiste in the Tamil film Rajaparvai. In her first film as an adult, she acted opposite Mohanlal and Prem Nazir in the 1983 movie Attakalasham. She has also acted in some of the biggest Malayalam hits of those years including Panchgani, starring Mohanlal and Geetha, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha and Amaram with Mammooty, Nayam Vyakthamakunnu, Ekalavyan, Rajavazhcha, Devasuram, Aaram Thamburan, Commissioner, Ustaad etc. 

However, she stopped acting at the peak of her career due to personal problems in the late 90s after she got married. Chitra was born as a second child to parents Madhavan and Devi in 1965. She did her schooling in Chennai and moved on to acting in films after her 10th grade. The actor discontinued films after marriage. She is married to Vijayararaghavan, a businessman, and the couple have a daughter Mahalakshmi.

Over two decades, she acted in more than 100 films including Urkavalan, Madhumati, Cheran Pandian, Pontati Rajyam and others with actor Rajinikanth. 

Chitra got her nickname 'Nallenai' after a very successful television commercial for an oil brand that she appeared in. In the 2000s, Chitra returned to the industry with films such as Mazhavillu (1999) and Soothradharan (2001).