Actor Sharanya Sasi, who has worked in Malayalam films and television serials, died at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. She was 33 years old. She was fighting brain tumour for years. Sharanya had also tested positive for the coronavirus when she was admitted at the hospital. Manorama reports that she developed pneumonia from the disease and had been hospitalized since June.
She was diagnosed with brain tumour eight years ago and had needed many surgeries through the years. Senior actor Seema G Nair had earlier told TNM about the number of surgeries her younger colleague was put through over the years, and how the tumour kept 'revisiting her'.
Sharanya had first appeared in a show in Doordarshan in 2006. Since then she had acted in several films and serials. She had acted in films like Mohanlal-starrer Chotta Mumbai, Prithviraj's Thalappavu, Kalabhavan Mani's Chacko Randaman and so on. She played the female lead in the Tamil film Pachai Engira Kaathu. Later she became active in television serials in Malayalam and Tamil. She also worked in Telugu television serials.
Actor Manju Warrier was one of the first to pay condolences to Sharanya. "Condolences to the family," she added.
In 2019, she was acting in a Malayalam serial called Chandanamazha when the tumour visited her again for the seventh time in as many years. She has had more surgeries after that. Manorama reports that her last surgery was in April 21 and this was her eleventh one. Nine of the surgeries were for removing her tumour and two others for removing growth in thyroid.
Her family had depended on fundraising campaigns on crowdfunding sites like milaap to collect money for her treatment. Her friends and colleagues at the Association of Television Media Artistes too had contributed for the treatment expenses.
Sharanya who had always come back to her acting work following each of her surgeries had begun a YouTube channel during the COVID-19 lockdown.