By Admin 
There are some faces in Hindi cinema whose presence always remains even after their passing. Smita Patil is one such name. Her expressions and style of speaking dialogues made her different from other actresses.
Initially she was a news reader. She used to face the camera with confidence, and this camera became the biggest companion of her career. After coming into the industry, she showed her skills and used to shoot with full enthusiasm. The director called her ‘one take queen’.
Smita Patil’s first film
Smita Patil was born on 17 October 1955 in Pune in a political family. Father was a minister in the Maharashtra government and mother was a social worker. He was interested in acting, drama and dance since childhood. After completing his studies, he started working as a news reader in Doordarshan. Seeing his style of speaking, ease and confidence in front of the camera, director Shyam Benegal’s attention fell on him. He cast Smita in his film ‘Charandas Chor’ and her film career started from here.
Made his own identity in cinema
When Smita entered the world of cinema, it was dominated by glamor actresses, but Smita created her own identity. She avoided makeup, wore simple clothes, and looked very real in front of the camera.
She mostly completed her shots in one take. The director was amazed to see his ability. Veteran filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, and Mrinal Sen used to say that explaining acting to Smita is like explaining the meaning of light to the sun.
The sets of her films were witness to the fact that many times the director did not even need to say ‘cut’, because Smita would have perfected the scene in the first attempt itself.
Got special recognition from these films
The film ‘Bhumika’ released in 1977 is the biggest example of this. This film was very emotional, but Smita played her character with such strength that the audience could not forget her role even today.
At the same time, her character of a village woman in ‘Manthan’ was so natural that people believed that she was actually a resident of the same village. In many films including ‘Aakhir Kyun’, ‘Chakra’, ‘Arth’, ‘Mirch Masala’, he completed the most difficult scenes in a single take. Many times it happened that other actors were rehearsing and Smita was sitting quietly and understanding the meaning of the scene. As soon as the camera was on, she became a completely different person.
His career lasted only 10 years. During this period he won many awards. In 1980, she received the National Award for ‘Bhumika’ and in 1985, the Government of India honored her with the Padma Shri. He died on 13 December 1986 at the age of just 31.