Kundrathur L. V. Vasantha (1923–2008) was an Indian actress, singer and dancer who worked mainly in

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of P ...

films.

Biography

Vasantha was born in 1923 in

Kundrathur Kundrathur is a south western suburb of the city of Chennai, India and it comes under Kanchipuram District limits. It is the birthplace of Sekkizhar, a well-known poet-saint who authored the Periyapuranam. The locality is known for the Kundr ...

, then based in

Ramanathapuram district Ramanathapuram District, also known as Ramnad District, is one of the 38 districts an administrative districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The old Ramanathapuram District consists of Present day Virudhunagar and Sivagangai district ...

. As a young girl, she was actively involved in singing and dancing. According to actress

S. D. Subbulakshmi Srivaikundam Duraisamy Subbulakshmi was an Indian actress and singer who was active in Tamil cinema during the 1930s and 1940s. She was the wife of film director K. Subramanyam. She is credited with having introduced the singer and family fri ...

, Vasantha played in a minor, uncredited role in '' Pavalakkodi'' (1934). After becoming a teenager, she appeared in B. N. Rao's ''Rambaiyin Kaathal'' (1939), a box-office success that catapulted Vasantha into stardom. Rao later cast her in ''Bhooloka Ramba'' (1940), also a hit. When

Gemini Studios Gemini Studios was an Indian film studio based in Madras, Tamil Nadu. It was launched when S. S. Vasan, a businessman of many ventures (including the ownership of Ananda Vikatan) bought Motion Picture Producers' Combines from Krishnaswamy Sub ...

opened in 1941, Vasantha portrayed the lead female character in its debut production ''

Madanakamarajan ''Madana Kama Rajan'' () is a 1941 Indian Tamil-language adventure film directed by B. N . Rao and produced by S. S. Vasan. It was the first film for Vasan as producer for Dindugal Amirtham Talkies. Plot ''Madana Kama Rajan'' is tale of the adv ...

'', financed by Gemini founder

S. S. Vasan Subramaniam Srinivasan (4 January 1904 – 26 August 1969), popularly known by his screen name S. S. Vasan, was an Indian journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director and business tycoon. He is the founder of the Tamil-language maga ...

. The success of this film further enhanced Vasantha's reputation. When Vasan planned '' Chandralekha'' in 1943, he announced that Vasantha would star as the lead female, but she was eventually replaced by T. R. Rajakumari. Vasantha shifted to Salem where she joined T. R. Sundaram's

Modern Theatres Modern Theaters Ltd was an Indian film studio in Salem, Tamil Nadu started by T. R. Sundaram Mudaliar in 1935. The studio produced over more than 150 films until 1982 in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Sinhalese and even English of ...

, and played the female lead in many of Sundaram's films such as ''Rajarajeswari'' (1944), '' Burma Rani'' (1945) and ''Sulochana'' (1947). Vasantha was already an accomplished dancer and singer, so she did both in most of her films. Her dance-drama sequence in ''Madanakamarajan'' became notable. In 1946, she played the lead roles in two Modern Theatres films: the Wahab Kashmiri-directed ''Chitra'' which was not successful, and ''Subhadhra''. After acting in a few more films, she returned to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(then known as Madras) and lived there till her death in 2008.

Personal life

Vasantha was separately married to producer K. K. Vasu, and Sundaram.

Partial filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasantha, K L V 1923 births 2008 deaths Indian film actresses Indian female dancers Actresses in Tamil cinema Indian women playback singers Tamil playback singers People from Ramanathapuram district Singers from Tamil Nadu Dancers from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian singers 20th-century Indian dancers 20th-century Indian actresses 20th-century Indian women singers Women artists from Tamil Nadu