Rangammal K. R. also known fondly among social circles as Rangammal Paati (died 29 April 2022) was an Indian actress who appeared in comedy roles as well as supporting roles in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-language films during her illustrious career. She had acted in over 1000 films in her career spanning over six decades. She shared screen space with prominent actors including M. G. Ramachandran,

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram. Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001), better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and film producer. He was mainly active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th centur ...

Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 170 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, ...

Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...

, Vijay,

Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar Subramaniam (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. To date, he has starred in over 63 films, and won four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Ta ...

and

Vishal Vishal may refer to: People * Vishal (name), a common Indian given name * King Vishal, emperor of the Mahabharata era who founded the ancient city of Vishalapura * Vishal (actor) (born 1977), Indian film actor, producer and anti-piracy activi ...

during her illustrious career.

Career

She began her acting career starring in films which had M. G. Ramachandran in the main lead roles. She initially acted as a junior artist and in minor roles in films and she had acted in films starring opposite MGR and

during the initial phase of her career. She made her acting debut through '' Vivasayi'' (1967) directed by M. A. Thirumugam which had MGR in the main male lead role. She appeared in a minor role in her debut film as a dancer in song portion. She made dupe in fight sequences for actresses including Latha and for several other actresses during the early phase of her cinema career. She appeared in a song sequence "Paramasivan Kazhuthil" where she sat alongside J. Jayalalithaa in the film '' Suryagandhi'' (1973). She had a breakthrough role in '' Seevalaperi Pandi'' (1994) where she starred in the role as the mother of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. She appeared in song sequence "Yaaro Yaarodi Unnoda Purushan" in '' Alai Payuthey'' (2000) starring opposite

Shalini Ajith Shalini (formerly known as Baby Shalini; born 20 November 1979) is a former Indian actress and child artist who worked in Malayalam and Tamil films. During the 80s, Shalini was the most successful child artist in Malayalam and Tamil films. Aft ...

. She then predominantly appeared in several films in comedy sequences regularly featuring alongside prominent comedians Vadivelu and Vivek. She had mostly appeared in films for a short timeframe but had made an impact on the viewers with her comedy performances. Her most notable iconic memorable comedy performance came in ''

Kee Mu ''Kee Mu'' () is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama tragedy film directed by Majith. The film stars newcomer Hassan and newcomer Sarika, with Vadivelu, Charan Raj, Soori, Karthik Sabesh, Marks and Majith playing supporting roles. Th ...

'' (2008) where she collaborated with Vadivelu in a scene involving a stray dog where she says, "porathu than pora appdiye antha naaya shunnu sollitu poppa", "karuppa irukkuravana kadikkathunu ninaichi sonnen". She also made notable performance again collaborating with Vadivelu in a ghost chasing scene in '' Muniyandi Vilangial Moonramandu'' (2008). She also featured in comedy roles in films alongside Ganja Karuppu and Santhanam. She played a titular role in the film ''Paatti'' (2013) which had its theatrical release in February 2013.

Biography

She hailed from

Coimbatore District Coimbatore District is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Coimbatore is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is one of the most industrialized districts and a major textile, industrial, commercial, educa ...

in Telungupalayam near

Annur Annur is a town Panchayat and Taluk headquarters of Annur Taluk of the Coimbatore district. It is a suburb of Coimbatore located north-east about from the center of the city. The nearest airport is Coimbatore International Airport, which is ...

. She pursued an interest in cinema at young age and she started acting in stage dramas. She was married to Rangasamy who was a police officer. Her husband Rangasamy died on 21 December 1987 and the couple had twelve children in the family including six sons and six daughters. She returned to her hometown Telungupalayam during the latter part of her life owing to

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

and ageing concerns while it was also reported that her children did not financially support her. During the latter part of her life, she sold handkerchiefs and handicrafts to people at

Marina Beach Marina Beach, or simply the Marina, is a natural urban beach in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, along the Bay of Bengal. The beach runs from near Fort St. George in the north to Foreshore Estate in the south, a distance of , making it the second longest ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

for her livelihood as she struggled to cope with the economic situation owing to a lack of film opportunities. Her age was regarded as the prime reason for her being sidelined by filmmakers. However, Rangammal herself claimed that she got inspiration from her idol MGR to work hard in order to earn money and refuted rumors about her being left out by people around her, which propelled her to sell handkerchiefs at the beach.

Death

She died on 29 April 2022 at the age of 83 in Teleguyupalyam,

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

due to age-related ailments. She was very active up until the end of her lifetime, selling items on the beach.

Selected filmography

Films

Web series

* '' Putham Pudhu Kaalai Vidiyaadhaa'' (2022)

Short films

* ''Kuttimaa'' (2013) * ''The Yellow Festival'' (2015) * ''Renuka'' (2018) * ''Postman''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rangammal 1930s births 2022 deaths Tamil actresses Indian film actresses Tamil comedians Indian women comedians Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Actresses in Hindi cinema People from Coimbatore district