Kathak danseuse Sitara Devi passes away

Mumbai: Eminent Kathak danseuse Sitara Devi died in Mumbai early on Tuesday after prolonged illness, her son-in-law confirmed. She was 94.

Sitara Devi was on ventilator and her condition was serious on Monday while she was admitted to the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, said her son-in-law.

“She is no more,” Rajesh Mishra, her son-in-law told IANS. Sitara Devi was earlier admitted to the Cumballa Hill Hospital and Heart Institute.

A recipient of prestigious awards like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Shri and Kalidas Samman, she was born Dhannolakshmi in the family of Brahmin ‘kathakar’ Sukhdev Maharaj in Kolkata in 1920.

When she turned 11, the family moved to Mumbai, where she impressed Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore with a three-hour solo recital.

Over the next six decades, she became a Kathak legend and is known as a pioneering force in bringing the genre to Bollywood.