Jyothi Lakshmi passes away.

Popular Southern actress Jyothi Lakshmi, who regaled the audience with her moves in 70s and early 80s, passed away in Chennai on Tuesday. She was 63. According to sources, she breathed her last while undergoing treatment for blood cancer.

"She was suffering from blood cancer for a while and had been undergoing a treatment. She passed away in the wee hours of Tuesday," said a source.

Having made her cinematic debut with the 1963 Tamil film ‘Periya Idathu Penn’ at the age of 10, she went on to star mostly in dance numbers and negative roles. She is widely regarded as the actress who made cabaret dancing very popular in cinema.

She made her Telugu debut with ‘Peddakkaya’ but it was the song “Gudi Venakaa Naa Saami” from 1973 Sobhan Babu-starrer ‘Ida Lokam’ that catapulted her to instant fame.

And from thereon, there was no looking back for the actress as her dance numbers turned out to be a must in most NTR, ANR, Krishna and Sobhan Babu’s films those days.

The popularity of her numbers was such that a song was penned– “Jyothilakshmi Cheerakattindi”— on her in NTR-starrer ‘Sardar Paparayudu.’ Needless to say that it was a smash hit!

Some of her hit numbers include “Le Le Le Naa Raja” from ‘Prem Nagar’ (1971), “Ekkadunnaado” from ‘Jagath Jantreelu’ (1971), “Ee Vayaari” from ‘Pilla Piduga’ (1972), “Rungu Rungu” from ‘Seetharamalu’ (1980) and “O Subbaravu” from ‘Bobbili Puli’ (1982).

In the early 80s, Jyothi Lakshmi starred in several dance numbers along with her sister, Jaya Malini. Around this time, her fame slowly started to diminish as her sister took over.

Having starred over in 300 films cutting across all the South industries, her last on-screen appearance was in last year's 2015 Tamil adult comedy ‘Trisha Illana Nayanthara.’

Her last rites were performed in Chennai on Tuesday noon.

In a statement, MAA president Rajendra Prasad expressed his condolences over Lakshmi’s demise.

Veteran actress Radikaa took to Twitter and posted, “Very sad to hear of the sudden demise of Actress Jothilaxmi, worked with her in Annamalai serial. Lovely lady and a great dancer RIP (sic).”