Smita Patil born on October 17, 1955 was a leading Indian actress from the 1970s to the 1980s in both Hindi and Marathi cinema.

Starting out in the early Seventies (1974) with Shyam Benegal's "Charandas Chor" — a first for both — she soon developed into an actress of great intuitive talent and artistic worth. Her dusky, smouldering, earthy looks, coupled with her histrionic voltage, made her one of the stars of the New Cinema that was blitzing the screen and consciousness of a newer and more perceptive audience. Along with Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, she formed the most potent quartet representing the parallel cinema. Some of her landmark films like Manthan (1977), Bhumika (1977), Aakrosh (1980) and Chakra (1981) won her praise.

Patil was also an active feminist (in a distinctly Indian context) and a member of the Women's Centre in Bombay. She was deeply committed to the advancement of women's issues, and gave her endorsement to films which sought to explore the role of women in traditional Indian society, their sexuality, and the changes facing the middle-class woman in an urban milieu. Her arguably greatest (and unfortunately final) role came when Smita re-teamed with Ketan Mehta to play the feisty and fiery Sonbai in Mirch Masala (1987). Smita won raves for playing a spirited spice-factory worker who stands up against a lecherous petty official.

Smita was the daughter of a government minister shivajirao patil, shirpur (khandesh)and a social-worker mother. Born in Pune, Maharashtra, she studied at a Marathi-language school. Her first tryst with the camera was as a television newscaster. Her dusky beauty and large eyes drew attention. Always a bit of a rebel, she would grin when people complimented her on looking lovely in the saris she sported for the telecasts because minutes before going on air, she would have hurriedly wrapped the sari over her jeans.

When Patil became romantically involved with the actor Raj Babbar and later married him. Raj Babbar a much-married man who eventually left his present wife to marry Patil, she drew severe criticism from her fans and the media, clouding her personal life and throwing her into the eye of a media storm. Overnight, Patil was labeled a "home-breaker" and became the target of barbed criticism. "It was a nightmare for both Smita and Raj and looking back it was ultimately her dignified silence and restraint that becalmed those troubled times. Ushering in hope for a promising, new future -- but that was not to be."

Smita died as a result of childbirth complications on December 13, 1986. Nearly two decades later, one of India's greatest film directors, Mrinal Sen alleged that she died because of gross negligence.'"

"She passed away even before she could cement her relationship with her just born son, Prateek," a 2002 remembrance noted. "Her son, now a strapping teenager, is not the only 'Prateek' (symbol) of her memories. The only Asian cine-star who had the unique honour of a Retrospective in Paris and La Rochelle (at the promptings of no less a film luminary than director Costa Gavras), a two-time best actress award winner at the National Film Festival, a Padma Shree as well as a devoted wife and brand new mother, Smita Patil had every thing going her way, before the ironic final cut spliced her life from sight to memory. And the loss, even today, remains, irrevocably, ours....