Seema Deo, a renowned veteran actress who was a legend in Marathi cinema as well as a part of countless Hindi films, died on Thursday morning in Mumbai. She had been battling Alzheimer’s for a long time and died on August 24, according to her son Abhinay Deo.
Seema was 81 years old when she died. She is survived by her sons Abhinay and Ajinkya Deo.
Seema was the wife of the late veteran actor Ramesh Deo, who died in February 2022.
Her son Abhinay told her on Thursday morning that she had died at his home in Mumbai’s Bandra district.
Abhinay told PTI, “She passed away at 8.30-9 am at her residence in Bandra due to old age. She had been withdrawn completely, and eventually it is just old age. Alzheimer’s is such a thing that you stop figuring out how to function. She had dementia leading up to Alzheimer’s and she was suffering from it for over three years.”
“There’s no specific reason (for her death). Due to Alzheimer’s and dementia, the person forgets how to walk. The muscle memory starts coming down and one by one, the organs start shutting down,” he said.
Her final rites will be held on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park.
Seema, who was born and raised in Mumbai, began acting at an early age and has appeared in over 80 films in both Hindi and Marathi cinema during the course of her five-decade career.
In 1963, she married actor Ramesh Deo, with whom she lived until his death in 2022.
Seema has appeared in several popular Hindi films, including ‘Anand,’ ‘Kora Kagaz,’ ‘Naseeb Apna Apna,’ and ‘Saraswatichandra,’ among others. She collaborated with Bollywood’s biggest stars, including Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, and Sanjeev Kumar.
The senior actress transformed Marathi cinema, and she stated at an event in 2017 that she owed her entire career to her “guru,” National Award-winning actor Raja Paranjape.