Smita Patil: The actress's stories that never made it to the silver screen

Years ahead of her film career, Smita Patil worked as a newsreader for Doordarshan. Her professional and scenic composure and sonorous voice easily made her a recognizable face on Indian television in the early 1970s.

Smita Patil was an advocate for women's rights, which is illustrated through her chosen works portraying strong and complex female characters. For example, films such as Bhumika, Manthan, and Mirch Masala, all of which were projects she was involved with, depicted her concerted efforts to further social dialogue and perceptions of female representation in cinema, while also her attempts to break gender binary stereotypes.

Smita Patil, despite her extraordinary natural talent for acting, never took acting classes. She was a favorite of directors working in the New Wave cinema movement given her natural acting abilities, aside from her expressive eyes, her demeanor to embrace the character she was playing.

Smita was also a passionate photographer. Whenever she traveled for personal adventures and assignments, she would almost always have her camera with her so that she could also take photos of everyone's contribution as well as behind-the-scenes photos of her work-related tasks she pursued. Very few may know that she originally wanted to be a photojournalist.

Smita Patil tragically passed away too young of 31 after a complicated birth of her son, the actor Prateik Babbar, which devastated the country and Indian cinema, losing some of its brightest stars.