Actor Rashmika Mandanna, in an interview with Mojo Story last week, recalled her family’s reaction when she decided to join films. She said, “Conversations back home when I got my first pay cheque weren’t easy. In the Kodava community, nobody had ever entered the film industry. I think I’m the first from our whole community. People were extremely judgy.”

Her comment didn’t sit well with many from the Kodava community — an ethnic group from Karnataka’s Coorg region — including actor Neravanda Prema, who was active in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Responding to Rashmika’s remark, Prema told Kodagu Express, “What is there for me to say? The Kodava community knows the truth. You should ask her about her version of the statement.”

She also noted that other actors had paved the way long before: “Before me, there was Shashikala from Coorg, who played supporting roles. Then I entered the industry, and many Kodavas have done well since.”

Her statement also triggered a barrage of critical comments on social media platforms. “She is not the first frm kodava community ...before that many artist have acted like prema, nidhi subbaih, harishika poonacha, tanisha kuppanda (sic),” pointed out a user.

Another user wrote, “Rashmika maybe you are the only one who thinks u made it big. Yes definitely but u have also forgotten Gulshan Devaiah too has made it big (sic).”

Veteran actor Shashikala Om Prakash, popularly known as Shashikala, who was a part of over 100 films and has essayed many memorable characters, passed away at her Mumbai residence on Sunday. The 88-year-old actress was seen in movies like V Shantaram’s Teen Batti Char Raasta (1953), Bimal Roy’s Sujata (1959) and Tarachand Barjatya’s Aarti (1962), to name a few. Her other prominent projects included Anupama (1966), Waqt (1965), Gumrah (1963) and Khubsoorat (1980).

Born in Solapur, Maharashtra, Shashikala started working at an early age to support her parents. While she earlier shared screen space with actors like Rajesh Khanna, Nutan, Dharmendra, Rajkumar, Shashi Kapoor and Sunil Dutt, among others, in recent years, she also worked with Govinda, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. Her last few films include Chori Chori (2003) and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004). Earlier in her career, she often featured as the antagonist, while her second inning saw her making the transition into a sweet, doting grandmother on screen. Besides films, she also dabbled in television with shows like Sonpari (2000) and Kise Apna Kahein (2003).

Padmini Kolhapure, who also started out young as a child artiste, had worked with Shashikala in the film Ahista Ahista, in 1981. Padmini, at that time, had just blossomed into a leading lady. Remembering the actress, who she fondly called Shashikalatai, Padmini says, “I have always called her Shashikala tai as she was elder than me. We bonded while shooting Ahista Ahista. I was a newbie as far as playing the leading lady was concerned. Her grace before the camera, her poise and the way she played her part inspired me in a big way. I had the good fortune of having the chance to see her perform. I had seen many of her films, and the way she held the audience’s attention when she came on screen, was truly impressive. I don’t think many actresses have had a career like she did — she started in the 1930s and continued well into the new millennium. I think she was commendable as an artiste and also a wonderful human being. I remember while shooting Ahista Ahista, we would chat a lot between our shots and share laughs. We would talk about so many things, including some of her older films. She had a fabulous sense of style and was legendary for so many reasons.”

Talking about her last meeting with Shashikala, Padmini says, “It’s strange, but life takes people in different directions. When you’re shooting, you’re together all the time and then suddenly, you’re on your own. We drifted apart, too. Shashikala tai had her own films to work on, and I had my career, and eventually, my marriage and family life. We met several years later socially, but we didn’t lose our connection. We spoke like no time had gone by, and our special bond was still intact. This was a few years ago. Today, she has left the mortal world. I am going to miss her, but I also know that she will live in all our hearts through so many of her incredible movies.”

Shashikala, who left an indelible imprint playing characters that the audience loved to hate in the Hindi cinema of 1960s and 70s, passed away in Mumbai on Sunday. She was 88.

"We don't know the exact details of her demise," Birendra Nath Tiwari, president, Federation of Western India Cine Employees told PTI while confirming the news.

The Solapur-born actor’s career spanned over six decades and 175-odd films and TV serials. Shashikala Jawalkar (later Saigal) endured a deprived childhood and struggled for years doing minor parts before finding a semblance of a foothold with V Shantaram’s Teen Batti Char Raasta (1953) and Surang (1953).

It was Bimal Roy’s Sujata (1960) where she lip-synced with Nutan, ‘Bachpan ke din bhi kya din thhey’, that drew attention and earned her a first Filmfare nomination for “best supporting actress.”

The Sixties was her most rewarding decade. Old-timers remember her fleeing sandals in hand to avoid her domineering mother (Lalita Pawar) in Junglee (1961) to sing, ‘Nain tumhare mazedar’, with Anoop Kumar. Shashikala earned a mindboggling eight Filmfare nominations (Sujata, Aayee Milan Ki Bela, Himalay Ki God Mein, Anupama, Neel Kamal and Phool Aur Patthar) and two awards (Aarti and Gumrah) for “best supporting actress”. She received a nomination every year from 1963 to 67.

For negative parts such as a manipulative sister-in-law or a woman in cahoots with the villain, she was the producer’s first choice. The movie that earned her major recognition was Rajshri’s debut production, Aarti (1963). “Shashikala gives a memorable performance as (the) bitter, scorpion-tongued sister-in-law,” said The Times of India review. In Phool Aur Patthar, she memorably essayed a dancer determined to get the man she loves (Dharmendra) at any cost.

In times when actors were tied down by an image, breaking the mold wasn’t easy. But Shashikala often delivered nuanced performances. In B R Chopra’s Gumraah, she played the mysterious secretary of Ashok Kumar. The role required her to keep the audience guessing and she succeeded with aplomb “playing a colorful role in a colorful manner”, as TOI wrote.

In Bimal Roy’s Anupama (1967), she was again excellent as a talkative girl who displays her sensitive side in the final reels. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khubsoorat (1980) too offered her the off-beat part of a married woman whose desire to dance is suppressed by a disciplinarian mother-in-law (Dina Pathak). In later years, Shashikala also acted in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and the TV show, Jeena Isi Ka Naam hai.

Among those who mourned her death on social media were Lata Mangeshkar, Padmini Kolhapure, director Anil Sharma and Farhan Akhtar. “She essayed every kind of role with felicity,” Mangeshkar tweeted in Hindi. Shashikala had received the Padmashri in 2007.

Today, it is impossible to imagine anyone but Guru Dutt as Suresh Sinha who dies a lonely death in an empty film studio, slumped in the director's chair in Kagaz Ke Phool.

But, according to his writer-director friend Abrar Alvi, Guru Dutt, who had lived with the dream to make this film for eight years, since his days as an assistant director, had initially planned the cult classic with Chetan Anand in mind.

Guru Dutt had sketched out the story of a filmmaker struggling with a troubled marriage, a custody battle for his daughter, a career going steadily downhill, and an ego that won't let him accept favours from his star protégé, to the well-known director Mahesh Kaul. But Kaul wasn't too impressed with this offbeat subject. So Dutt tucked it away till he established himself as a director with Navketan's Baazi and then, decided to direct the film himself.

Kagaz Ke Phool was supposed to roll before Pyaasa and Guru Dutt had taken the role of Suresh to Chetan Anand, who with his salt-and-pepper hair “looked“ the character of the middle-aged director.“He was aghast when Chetan quoted a price which was as high as that of his younger brother Dev Anand, who was a star,“ informed Abrar.

Disappointed but not disheartened Guru Dutt then approached Ashok Kumar. But Dadamoni also declined and thereafter the director got busy with Pyaasa, followed by Raaz, which he shelved after 13 reels, and Gauri, abandoned after four. Kagaz Ke Phool was launched 10 days later to keep the company afloat, with Guru Dutt in the lead.

In later years, many have noted the similarities between the filmmaker and the aging hero of Kagaz Ke Phool. Like Suresh, Guru Dutt too was a man who lived to work in contrast to his fun-loving singer wife Geeta Dutt. The songstress enjoyed the company of friends and was irked that her introverted husband didn't share her fondness for parties. In the film too, Veena, the pampered daughter of an aristocrat, who has committed the cardinal sin of marrying a struggling filmmaker, even though he quickly rises in the social hierarchy with his films, is heard reminding him of a social engagement. Suresh who's in the editing room retorts, “Don't disturb me please.“ The marital problems that follow are inevitable.

Perhaps anticipating that people would find parallels between his real life and reel, Guru Dutt abruptly replaced Shashikala after shooting with her for a fortnight, turning the strongly etched character of the wife into a shadowy figure. “Almost all her best scenes were edited out. By dismissing the character of the wife and their hellish marriage, Guru Dutt weakened the plot because the audience couldn't understand why a man who had name, fame, money and success should be unhappy,“ a despondent Abrar, the film's story and dialogue writer, had said years later.

Many believed that the character of Shanti, the 'other woman', sensitively portrayed by Waheeda Rehman, was also rooted in Guru Dutt's relationship with his own protégé whom he had spotted in a dance number in a Telugu film and later turned her into one of Mumbai's best-loved stars. Abrar acknowledged that Guru Dutt had played Professor Henry Higgins to Waheeda's Eliza Doolittle but insisted that, like in the film, there was nothing physical about the relationship.

It was just a meeting of two minds that were completely in sync and understood each other too well.“Kagaz Ke Phool wasn't Guru Dutt's biography as is often believed, it was just another experimental film that he made.“ An experiment that didn't work commercially when it opened in 1959 but this Paper Flower hasn't withered with time, rather it has acquired the fragrance of a cult classic.