Name Snehalata Reddy Role Actor | Movies Samskara | |
Spouse Pattabhirama Reddy Tikkavarapu (m. ?–1977) | ||
Snehalata Reddy Top #8 Facts
Snehalata Reddy (1932 – 20 January 1977) was an Indian film actress, and producer known for her works in Kannada cinema, Kannada theatre, Telugu cinema, and Telugu theatre. As a social activist, she was imprisoned during the Emergency in India. She was the co-founder of the Madras Players in the 1960s, the amateur group that staged memorable productions like Ibsen's Peer Gynt, directed by Douglas Alger, besides Twelfth Night and Tennessee William's Night of the Iguana, directed by Peter Coe. Besides, she acted in, directed, or produced plays such as A View from the Bridge and The House of Bernarda Alba. In 2003, her husband Pattabhirama Reddy presented - In the Hour of God, a play based on Sri Aurobindo's classic Savitri, inspired by the mythical woman who defied death for love, which he dedicated to Snehalata Reddy.
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Personal life
Snehalata was married to Pattabhi Rama Reddy, the noted film director. She is noted for her roles in the Kannada film Samskara, which won the National Award in 1970 and Sone Kansari, which was released in 1977 after her death.
Snehalata and her husband participated in the anti-Emergency movement. Snehalata was a close friend of George Fernandes and was arrested on 2 May 1976. She was arrested for being a part of the Baroda dynamite case; however, while George Fernandes and many others were made accused in the case, Snehalata's name was not in final charge-sheet. Even than, she was kept as a prisoner, where she was regularly tortured and was confined to live in inhuman conditions in prison at Bangalore. When later her health deteriorated, she was released on parole on 15 January 1977. But she died five days after her release on parole due to chronic asthma and lung infection on 20 January 1977, being one of the first martyrs of the Emergency. Madhu Dandavate, who was also in the same jail where Snehalata was imprisoned, writes in his memoir, he could hear the screams of Snehalata from her cell in the silence of the night.