Actor, asst. director Ambika Rao passes away

Actor Ambika Rao, who was also a busy assistant director in the Malayalam film industry, breathed her last due to a heart attack at a hospital in Thrissur on Monday night. She was 58. Ambika was admitted to hospital after being afflicted with Covid-19.

She has acted in several films including ‘Kumbalangi Nights’, ‘Virus’, ‘Meesha Madhavan’, and ‘Anuraga Karikkin Vellam’. Fondly called ‘The Coach’ by her colleagues in the industry, Ambika was a much-sought-after assistant director as she was assigned the task of grooming actresses from other languages to get their lip-sync right while speaking Malayalam.

Ambika came to the tinsel world as an assistant director in actor-director Balachandra Menon’s film ‘Krishna Gopalakrishna’. Her major films as an assistant director include ‘Rajamanikyam’, ‘Thommanum Makkalum’, ‘Salt & Pepper’, and ‘Vellithira’. She is survived by two sons, Rahul and Sohan.