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The film industry is a strange place. While the triumphant are celebrated and chased after, and sometimes even placed on thrones inside ivory towers, those who fail to achieve as much success are often overlooked and forgotten the first time they step away from the limelight itself. As difficult as it is to crack one’s way into show business, sustaining a career there is equally challenging. However, Tamil actor Monal Naval quickly captured attention after her debut.

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Although she worked as an actor for only two years, she appeared in a handful of movies, including one in Hindi. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much gap between her rise and her fizzling out. She died in 2002, allegedly by suicide, and a mystery still shrouds her death. Monal was just 21 at the time of her death. For the unversed, she was the younger sister of renowned actor Simran.

After her schooling in Delhi, she attended college in Mumbai. During that period, Monal worked as a model, participated in fashion shows, and took part in beauty contests, eventually winning the Miss Bombay title, which paved the way for her entry into cinema. She also attended an acting school named Kishore Namit Kapoor Academy in Mumbai. Besides Simran, she had two more siblings: Jyoti and Sumeet.

A fan of Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Madhubala, and Madhuri Dixit, Monal Naval’s biggest dream when entering the film industry was to appear alongside Bollywood’s Baadshah one day. “I joined films because of Shah Rukh Khan! When I was in the seventh standard, I told my mom I wanted to work in a film with Shah Rukh. But after entering the industry, I know how much I have to slog to reach that level. I will have to do at least fifty films to get there,” she told Rediff in a 2001 interview.

Although she made her acting debut in the Shivarajkumar-led Indradhanush (2000) and subsequently made her Tamil debut with Paarvai Ondre Pothume (2001), it was director PA Arun Prasad’s Badri — where she appeared as one of the two heroines opposite actor-turned-politician “Thalapathy” Vijay, playing his girlfriend who eventually breaks up with him — that earned Monal recognition. She subsequently appeared in movies such as Lovely (2001), Samudhiram (2001), Maa Tujhhe Salaam (2002), Charlie Chaplin (2002), and Pesadha Kannum Pesume (2002).

Monal died by suicide on April 14, 2002, at her residence in Chennai, according to news agency PTI. Although she was rushed to a hospital, she couldn’t be saved.

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She further alleged that a famous actor and her manager — who was the first to reach Monal’s residence after learning about the suicide — stole her makeup kit worth Rs 50,000 and a personal diary that contained evidence of Monal’s relationship with Prasanna. However, the allegation could not be proven.

Hence, the exact reason for her suicide remains unknown to date.

Prasanna, whom Simran accused of driving her sister to suicide, later became a widely renowned choreographer, earning numerous awards. Monal, however, was eventually forgotten by the rest of the world. But Simran still remembers her fondly and occasionally shares social media posts in her memory.

In an interview with JFW Binge last year, Simran admitted that she didn’t attend Monal Naval’s funeral because she couldn’t bear to see her sister’s body. “I didn’t even attend her funeral because I couldn’t see her like that. Many people think that I just didn’t come to the funeral. That’s not the reason. How can I see my sister like that? That’s my personal feeling. I couldn’t see her like that. I could not,” she said, emotionally struggling for words.

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Shockingly, actor Kunal, who played the hero opposite Monal in her first and last Tamil films — Paarvai Ondre Pothume and Pesadha Kannum Pesume, respectively — also reportedly died by suicide over half a decade after she died in 2008.

The long-delayed Tamil thriller Aadhikkam (2005), which was released posthumously, became Monal Naval’s final film.

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