Renowned 86-year old Telugu actress Anjali Devi breathed her last Monday in Vijaya hospital in Chennai due to heart-related problems. Born in 1928 as Anjani Kumar, she made her cinematic debut as a child artist in 1936 film “Raja Harishchandra” and went on to act in over 300 films. She was later rechristened as Anjali Devi. In 1947, she made her debut as a lead heroine opposite Akkineni Nageswara Rao in Telugu family drama “Balaraju”.
Mostly known for starring in mythological and family dramas, Anjali became a household name with memorable performances in films such as “Lava Kusha”, “Bhakta Prahlada”, “Bhakta Tukaram” and “Badi Pantulu”. She had also worked in a few Tamil and Hindi films such as “Niraparadhi”, “Sarvadhikari”, “Devta” and “Sri Ram Vanvas”, respectively.
Under her home banner Anjali Pictures, she had also produced about 20 successful films such as “Anarkali”, “Paradesi” and “Suvarna Sundari”. Anjali is credited with introducing Bollywood actress Rekha to Telugu industry as a child artist in the film “Rangula Ratnam”.
