Yesteryears film actress Nirupa Roy died here Wednesday night following a massive heart attack. She was 73 and is survived by her husband and two sons.

Born in 1931 as Kokila Kishorechandra Balsara in Valsad, she made her debut in a Gujarati film, Ranakdevi in 1946.

Nirupa Roy had carved a niche for herself in the movie industry by playing the role of a mother in several films, particularly those starring Amitabh Bachchan ("Deewar", "Mard" and "Amar Akbar Antony").

Though she began her film career portraying various mythological characters in films like "Mira Bai" and "Satyavan Savitri" but she also did some realist cinema like Garam Coat (1955) and Do Bigha Zameen (1953), for both of which she was acclaimed and was awarded too.