Lesser known facts about Jayalalithaa

Mangalore Today News Network

Tamil Nadu, Dec 05, 2016: The iron lady of politics, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa continues to be constantly monitored by specialist Doctors with thousands of supporters praying devotedly.

Her political career is widely renowned, but did you know that all through her schooling she excelled academically, that she is also known as the uncrowned queen of Tamil cinema?

Here are lesser known, interesting facts tracing the life journey of the ailing chief minister:

1. Jayalalithaa was born in Karnataka’s Melukote, located in Mandya district to Jayaram and Vedavalli in a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family. She was given two names at the time of birth – her grandmother’s name Koamalavalli and Jayalalithaa. She assumed the official name Jayalalitha at age 11

2. Her father was a squanderer who died when she was 2 years old. To support the family financially, her mother Vedavalli joined films under the name Sandhya, during which time Jayalalithaa studied in Bishop Cottons Girls High School in Bangalore. Later on she moved to Chennai to visit her mother and completed her education at Church Park Presentation Convent. She is known to have excelled academically winning many awards including the Gold State Award for coming first in 10th standard in all of Tamil Nadu.

3. While in Chennai, Jayalalithaa trained in classical music, western classical piano, and various forms of classical dance, including Bharatanatyam, Mohiniattam, Manipuri and Kathak. While watching one of her dance performances, the then Chief Guest Shivaji Ganesan predicted that she will one day be a huge film star


4. In 1961, she had acted as a child artiste in a Kannada film ‘Sri Shaila Mahathme’  starring popular stars such as Dr Rajkumar and Krishna Kumari. She essayed the role of Goddess Parvathy coincidentally while accompanying her mother on the sets of the film shoot. As early as 15 years of age, she was a recognized face in films.


5. One of her very first roles was an English film ‘The Epistle’. She also acted in the Kannada film ‘Chinnada Gombe’, which was certified as an adult film. As Jaya was in school while she starred in this film, she herself was not allowed to watch the film. Subsequently, she was offered several roles, but she was more interested in studying further to become a lawyer and a millionaire.


6. In her autobiography, she has said that financial crisis and her mother forced her into becoming a full-time actress. But her immense talent was such that the limelight was bound to find her in any capacity. She went on to act in scores of films in Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu and became famous as the silver jubilee queen. She had 119 box-office hits from the 60s to the 80s. She was also the highest paid Indian actress during this period.

7. During her film career, she famously fell in love with the already-married actor Shoban Babu. She was even caught watching him through a pair of binoculars from her home. Though she was in a publicized live-in relationship with him, Jaya has never been married

8. She was also a huge, self-proclaimed fan of cricket. In an interview she admitted that she used to go for matches with binoculars just to look at Pataudi and Pataudi alone. 

9. She shared a very interesting relationship with Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR who she had shared screen-space with in many films. MGR recognized her as an independent woman who acted on her own volition. As MGR began closely monitoring her ever move and decided to cast a new heroine in his new film, Jaya found solace in Shoban Babu. However, her friendship with MGR was revived in 1981 and from thereon began another dimension of Jayalalithaa’s life, her life as we know it today as a politician. It was really MGR who introduced her to politics, but Jaya has always maintained that she joined politics of her own accord.

10. Jayalalithaa is known to be a loner owing to her life-experiences. She had developed a deep sense of distrust very early on in life. Her distrust of people was such that she wouldn’t flinch before expelling people from her life as she very famously expelled close aid and most trusted companion Sasikala Nataraj over suspicion. Although that relationship stands revived as well as on today. She had once stated that “The experiences I have been through, the suffering and pain have taught me an important lesson: in life there is one person you must rely on—yourself.“