Ashalata Wabgaonkar, one of the most popular and veteran actress in the Marathi film industry, passed away, as reported by Mumbai Mirror. She was 79. Commonly known as Ashalata, the actress tested COVID-19 positive, along with other crew members of the ongoing Sony Marathi TV channel show ‘Aai Majhi Kalubai’.

It was reported by Mumbai Mirror, that Ashalata Wabgaonkar was the only one among the cast to test positive. The rest are crew members. Most of them are asymptomatic and have been home quarantined.

According to the tabloid, the test results had come out around a week ago, while Ashalata was said to be critical till around three days ago and put on ventilator support in hospital, she was showing signs of recovery till September 21, 2020. Actress Alka Kubal, Ashalji’s friend and co-actor from the show along with the show’s producer, was with her in the hospital.

Digambar Kamat, Ex-Chief Minister of Goa, took to Twitter to mourn the death of Ashalata. “Deeply pained by the passing away of acclaimed Goan Artist Ashalata Wabgaonkar. Her splendid performances in theatre & films will keep inspiring the generations to come. My condolences to her family & fans. May her soul rest in peace. [sic]”

Ashalata Wabgaonkar was born and brought up in Goa. The veteran actress was associated with the Goa Hindu Association as well. She, who has acted in more than 100 Hindi and Marathi movies, started off her career with Konkani and Marathi plays.

Guntata Hridhya He, Varyavarchi Varaat, Chinna (with Smita Patil and Sadashiv Amrapurkar) and Mahananda were among her most popular Marathi plays.

Filmmaker Basu Chatterjee introduced she in Hindi films with Apne Paraye (along with Bharati Achrekar) for which she was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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