What happened to Lalita Pawar’s eye?

Generations gone by remember Lalita Pawar as the vamp with an eye problem. However, poor Pawar wasn’t born with this defect. Back in 1942, when she was all of 26, Pawar had beautiful eyes.  The young actress was shooting for a film called Jung-E-Azadi, where a particular scene required her to be slapped by Master Bhagwan (better known as Bhagwan Dada). Unfortunately, Bhagwan took his role too seriously, slapping Pawar so hard that it left her with facial paralysis and a burst left eye vein. Pawar was out of action for the next three years. While she didn’t lose her vision, her left eye was damaged for life, ending her career as a lead actress.

To her credit, Pawar turned this to her advantage. After the accident, she switched to playing maternal roles and was widely appreciated for Raj Kapoor’s  Anari, Bimal Roy’s Sujata, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Professor, for which she won an award for Best Supporting Actor. She also won praise for her portrayal of Manthara in Ramanand Sagar’s epic TV series Ramayan in 1986.