The Sensation Called Smita Patil

Smita Patil would have been 69 today, October 17.

The actor, who passed away at the young age of 31, had a rare appeal.

Even though her contribution to cinema was cut short so quickly, she gave us many, many movies to remember her by.

She inspired many film-makers in her lifetime.

Mahesh Bhatt once said, 'She was this untameable stream gushing down from the Himalayas which I had the privilege of having touched in my life before it disappeared into the mountains again.'

He had directed Smith in Arth, a film that she lived in real life.

What was Smita really like as a person?

'I describe her as an illusion. She was not intelligent or intellectual but sensitive. Intense,' one of her co-stars Mohan Agashe had once said.

Her family tries to give us a clear picture too.

'Smi, as I called her, was rare and unique from the day she arrived in this world in a hurry and left this world in an equal hurry,' her older sister Anita Patil Deshmukh had said.

'She was not fussy about the food or how it was cooked. She would eat even boiled bhindi with boiled rice,' her husband Raj Babbar gives us yet another insight.

Her son Prateik discovered her through her movies: 'I was always aware Mom was someone who was recognised, admired and loved. Now I am discovering she was also an extraordinary artist.'

Just who was Smita, really?

The beautiful actor, who spoke through her eyes and introduced us to cinema like never before?

Here's your chance to read our Rediff Specials and get a beautiful insight into the star.