Veteran Telugu Actress Jamuna Dies at 86, Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu and Jr NTR Pay Emotional Tributes

Veteran Telugu actress Jamuna died, aged 86, on Friday at her residence in Hyderabad. She was suffering from age-related ailments for quite some time. She is survived by her daughter Sravanthi and son Vamsee Juluri. Several Telugu stars took to social media and paid their tributes to her.

Jr NTR tweeted in Telugu: “She continued as Maharani in the Telugu film industry for almost 30 years. He left an indelible mark on our minds with many memorable films like Gundamma Katha, Missamma and many more diverse characters. May your soul rest in peace. My deepest condolences to Jamuna’s family.”

Chiranjeevi and Mahesh Babu also took to Twitter and remembered her.

Jamuna was born in Karnataka’s Hampi as Jana Bai to Nippani Srinivasa Rao and Kowsalya Devi on August 30, 1936. Jamuna’s parents wed outside their caste, which was uncommon at the time. Jamuna’s mother was from the Vaisya community and her father was a Brahmin.

Jana Bai, who later took the screen name Jamuna, started her career as a stage artist in school. Encouraged by her mother, Jamuna studied vocal music and harmonium. In 1952, after seeing her performance on stage, Dr Garikapati Rajarao Rao gave her the chance to appear in his movie Puttillu, when she was only 16 years old.

Jamuna then went on to appear in many south Indian films, including Telugu and Tamil. Jamuna later starred in Hindi films as well. She received the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress in Milan (1967), which was the Hindi adaptation of the Telugu film Mooga Manasulu. The late actress appeared in around 200 films in her career.

In 1965, Jamuna married Juluri Ramana Rao, a professor at SV University, and the couple had two kids in their marital life. On November 10, 2014, her husband, who was 86 then, passed away from a cardiac attack.

Jamuna, who joined the Congress party in the 1980s, was elected as a Lok Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh’s Rajahmundry constituency in 1989. After that, she quit politics but campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1990s. Numerous political leaders and members of the Telugu cinema industry have expressed their sorrow at Jamuna’s demise.

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