Career
She was known chiefly for playing comedy and villainous characters in Tollywood. Her performances in movies like Osey Ramulamma, Nuvvu Nenu, Lakshmi, Okkadu and Veede were well received. She also acted on television and in Tamil-language films, where she is known by the name, Swarnakka.
She was well known for her ability to speak in the Telangana and Rayalaseema dialects of the Telugu language and thus majority of her roles in Telugu cinema exhibited this.
She was born in a Maharastrian family in Maharashtra, India. Her father was an Army Officer and her mother a housewife.
She has three sisters. She made her stage début in a play at Ravindra Bharathi.
She did many plays after that.
She started her film career by playing a character role in 1979 Telugu film Maa Bhoomi directed by Goutam Ghose. She mainly acted in Telugu movies.Throughout her career she was acclaimed stage artist. In her one of the final interviews with MAATV, Shakunthala expressed that if she has a rebirth, she will be born in to a Telugu speaking family expressing her love for Telugu language.
Shakuntala suffered cardiac arrest at her Hyderabad home on the morning of 14 June 2014, five days after her 63rd birthday.
She was admitted to Narayana Hrudayalaya at around 2:30 Department of Administration and Management India Standard Time , where she was declared dead upon arrival.
