But no death triggered the mass grief that followed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's December 5 demise, which marked the end of an era in the state's cinema-dominated politics and claimed one of India's most charismatic leaders. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets, many openly weeping. And in a remarkable coincidence, Cho Ramaswamy, a respected journalist and an actor who had starred in many movies with Jayalalithaa, died the next day in Chennai -- also in the same Apollo Hospitals.