Political leaders in Tamil Nadu Monday expressed shock over the death of veteran actress Padmini with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi saying she "was a star among the stars".

"I do not know how death had the heart to snatch such a beautiful and rare artiste," was what Karunanidhi said in his tribute to Padmini who passed away here Sunday night due to cardiac arrest. She was 74.

Former chief minister J. Jayalalitha, an actress of repute herself, said: "It will be very difficult to fill the void caused by Padmini's death."

Padmini and her two sisters were introduced into the film world by Uday Shankar, the noted dancer, in a dance-based film, when Padmini was just 14.

She had more than 250 films to her credit and worked in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada movies.

A stamp was issued in her honour in the former Soviet Union. She had won a best classical dancer award at a Moscow youth festival.

During the India-Pakistan war in 1965, she went to the battlefront to perform for the soldiers and volunteered to assist wounded soldiers in hospitals here.