Tamil Actress, Former Miss South India Shubha Phutela Dies at 21

Tamil actress and former beauty queen, Shubha Phutela, died in Bangalore on Monday night after suffering from kidney complications.

The 21-year-old budding actress was undergoing treatment at Apollo hospital for jaundice and a kidney problem for the past three months. Last week, her health condition had worsened and she fell into a coma.

"She was undergoing treatment for kidney problem for three months. She also got jaundice recently. She was showing signs of recovery but suddenly slipped into coma last week," a hospital source told IANS.

Phutela was born in Punjab to Dr Rajpal Phutela and Santosh Phutela. While her father is a scientist/professor in the field of Microbiology, her mother is a retired teacher. She has one elder sister and a younger brother, who is still studying.

She did her graduation in BE Computer Science from Dayananda Sagar College in Bangalore.

Phutela made her film debut this year in a Tamil romantic movie - "Maalai Pozhudhin Mayakathilaey".  

She won several beauty pageants including Miss Cosmos 2007, Miss Youth 2008, Sigma Mall Brand Model Hunt 2008 and Hairomax Miss South India 2010.

She endorsed many top brands like Fastrack, Honda City, TVS Scooty, Kingfisher, Britannia, Fly Mobile and others.

Phutela also appeared on the cover page of March 2011 issue of the Femina Buyology supplement.

Earlier this year, she signed a Telugu film starring Ram and even did a photo shoot for the film, said reports. She later withdrew from the film citing health problems.