Kumari Rukmani


Kumari Rukmani was an Indian cine actress and dancer. She has acted in about 100 films in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages.

Childhood

She is the daughter of Nungambakkam Janaki, also an actress. She hails from Melattur in Thanjavur District.
During the shooting of Harichandra in Bombay the producers were looking for a young actor to feature as Lohidasan. Kumari Rukmani, as a child, was staying with her parents in the next room where T. P. Rajalakshmi who was the female lead in the film, was staying. T.P. Rajalakshmi recommended Kumari Rukmani to the producers. The producers talked to the parents and made Kumari Rukmani to feature as Lohidasan in the film. Thus began her film career.

Film career

She featured in many films together with T. P. Rajalakshmi.
Her first film as heroine was Sri Valli in which she acted as Valli paired with T. R. Mahalingam.
In 1946 she featured in Lavangi paired with the multi-talented Y. V. Rao. While the shooting of this film was going on both she and Rao fell in love with each other and later got married. Cine actress Lakshmi is their daughter.

Partial filmography

Producer

She has produced two films in Hindi, with Lavangi and Manjari.

Death

After ailing for some time, Kumari Rukmani died on 4 September 2007 at her daughter's residence in Chennai.

K. T. Rukmini

There was another actress/singer named K. T. Rukmini during 1930/40s. She featured in films like Menaka, Thirumangai Alwar and her last film was Ponnuruvi