Jayalalitha J

Jayalalithaa's grandfather was in the service of the Mysore kingdom in 1880-1920 period as a surgeon, with king being Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV of Mysore. How ever her named was derived from two houses of her grandfather in Mysore named Jayavilas and Lalithanivas.

Jayalalitha J was born on February 24, 1948 in Mandya, Mysore State, India as Jayalalithaa Jayaraman.

After death of Jaya's father in 1950, Jaya'smother Vedavalli took her children Jaya Kumar and Jayalalithaa to Bangalore where her maternal grandparents lived and started working as a typist. Vedavallii's sister Ambujam/ Ambujavalli, was an air hostess in Madras since 1948 and had got some breaks in Tamil films from 1951. Ambujawali was working as an air hostess and was also acting in dramas and films using the screen name Vidyavathi. Ambujavalli encouraged Vedavallii to also come to Chennai and be part of theatre and films taking screen name of Sandhya. Hence Vedavalli came to Chennai to be actress since 1953 under the name Sandhya.

Jayalalitha's mother was Sandhya. Sandhy had acted in films from 1953 to 1967 such as Padikaatha Medai, Sampoorna Ramayanam, Karnan as a supporting actress with Sivaji Ganesan and in Poojaiki Vandha Malar with Gemini Savithiri and Muthuraman. Sandhya as an actress never became a star but was able to garner many supporting roles. She played the leading lady in a few films including 'Minnal Veeran,' opposite actor Ranjan.

Jayalalitha was niece of Vidyavathi who was an actress and whose original birth name was Ambujam/ Ambujavalli. Jaya was also the niece of Padmavalli who remained a housewife from 1958.

In 1959 Jayalalithaa lived with her aunt and mother and brother in T Nagar in Chennai.

When she did her Bharatnatyam Arangetram, which is a function conducted when formal training of a girl dancing gets over , the chief guest was Sivaji Ganesan. He praised the little girl Jayalalithaa saying she looks like a queen sitting in golden throne. (Thangapadakamm).The function was in May 1960. It was held at the Rasika Ranjani Sabha hall in Mylapore. She was 12 years old at the time. Sivaji in his address commended Jayalalithaa's dancing and also praised her physical beauty particularly her figure and fair complexion.He was definite that she would take to acting. He referred to her as the Thangachellai meaning Golden Statue. Sivaji predicted then that "Ammu" would become a great film star. Both mother and daughter shared the vision of Jayalalithaa becoming a lawyer and hence did not like Sivaji Ganeshan's prediction in the year 1960.

Jayalalithaa made her debut in English movies in 1961 with Epistle released in 1961, which was produced by Shankar Giri, son of former president of India VV Giri.

Her debut in Kannada film was Chinnada Gombe in 1964 and her debut Telugu film was Manushulu Mamathalu in 1964, in Tamil it was Vennira Aadai (1965) and in Hindi it was Izzat in 1968 and in Malayalam it was film Jesus in 1973.

MGR was 48 years old and Jayalalithaa only 17 when they acted in Ayirathil Oruvan. Despite the 31-year age difference the pair hit it off grandly on screen. MGR-Jayalalithaa pair acted in 28 films and each of the 28 were box-office hits from 1965-1973. 19 of their hit films were platinum jubilee hits and 8 were golden jubilee hits.Thier only silver jubilee hit film was Anamitta Kai and reason for it being only silver jubilee hit was it was a black and white film released in 1972. Their first film as a pair was Ayirathil Oruvan in 1965 and last film was Pattikattu Ponnaniah in 1973.

Other than MGR, she also had many hits opposite Sivaji Ganeshan, Muthuraman, Jaishanakar and Ravichandran in the period 1966-1977 in Tamil Films.

It was Jayalalithaa's entry in Tamil films after which producers and directors preferred pairing Jaya opposite MGR rather than Saroja Devi.Saroja Devi's opportunity to work with MGR stopped after 1967 and Jaya replaced Saroja as the No.1 heroine in Tamil film industry from 1966-1980.Saroja was the highest paid and No.1 heroine in Tamil films from 1959-1968 and became No.1 in Kannada films from 1970-1980.But Jayalalithaa and Saroja Devi remained friends since 1970-2013. There was never any animosity between them.

Jayalalitha was paired opposite Sivaji Ganeshan in 17 films as his heroine. Of the 17 Tamil films, 16 of them were Golden Jubilee hits. The 16 hit films were Galatta Kalyanam (1968), Enga Oor Raja (1968), Gurudhakshinai (1969), Dheiva Magan (1969), Padhukappu (1970), Engirundho Vandhal (1970), Enga Mama (1970, Sumathi En Sundari (1971), Saveley Samali (1971), , Needhi (1972), Dharmam Engey (1972), Thai (1974), Raja(1972), Anbai Thedi (1974), Avanthan Manithan, Chitra Pournami. Their only 1 flops was Pattam Bharatamum (1976). In the film Motorom Sunderam Pillai, Jayalithaa played as daughter of Sivaji Ganeshan and this film was a box office hit too. A suggested reason for the failure of Pattatum Bharatamum was that the audience could not accept Jayalalitha 's character having a child before marriage or as an old or naive woman who can be suppressed by men.

She is known for her work on Shri Krishna Satya (1971), Pattikada Pattanama (1972) and Suryagandhi (1973).

She was Chief minister of Tamil Nadu, India from 1991 to 1996, 2001-2006, 2011 to 2016. For a brief period in Sep 2014 to July 2015 and from September 2001 to March 2002; her party person O.Paneerselvam was chief minister of the state.

In the 2000s, a person named Mr Vasudevan claimed that he was step brother of Jayalalitha and that their father Jayaram had married Jayamma and had two children - Vasudevan and Shailaja. Jayaram married for second time with Sandhya and had 2 more children - Jayakumar and Jayalalithaa.But Jayalalithaa refused to entertain them, despite knowing the struggles they were going through to earn their livelihoods. When they went public with their relationship, Ms Jayalalithaa filed a defamation case against them in a Madras sessions court. Ms Shailaja lived in Bengaluru and Vasudevan lived in a tiny village of Sri Rangarajapura, 40 km from T. Narasipur taluka of Mysore district.Vasudevan was a heart patient and had been living on a meager Rs 400 monthly pension given by the Karnataka government at the time of going public with his claim in 2000s.These claims were rubbished by Jayalalitha and she said her father had only one wife - Sandhaya, who was her mother.The court case was dismissed by the judge and judgment supported Jayalalitha.

Present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India. [May 2005]

She won Gold State Award for coming first in 10th standard in not just her school but also in Tamil Nadu.