Veteran actor, theatre person Sulabha Deshpande passes away

Veteran theatre and film actor Sulabha Deshpande, who had acted in numerous Marathi and Hindi films, passed away at her Mumbai residence today after a prolonged illness, family sources said. She was 79.

Apart from acting in the plays written by acclaimed playwrights such as Vijay Tendulkar, Deshpande featured in several Marathi and Hindi films and TV serials. In Hindi, the noteworthy films in which she appeared included 'Bhumika' (1977), 'Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan' (1978) and 'Gaman' (1978). In recent years, she had appeared in Gauri Shinde-directed 'English Vinglish.'

She was associated with 'Rangayan,' a pioneering Marathi experimental theatre group, along with Tendulkar, Vijaya Mehta, and Satyadev Dubey. In 1971, she co-founded the theatre group 'Awishkar' with her husband Arvind Deshpande (who died in 1987).