Jayalalitha Mother

Jayalalitha’s father, Jayaram, died when Jayalalitha was two years old. His mother Vedavalli returned to her father’s home in Bangalore in 1950.

Vedavalli learnt shorthand and typewriting to take up a clerical position to help support the family in 1950. In 1952, Jayalalithaa’s mother Vedavalli relocated to Madras and stayed with her sister.

Vedavalli worked in a commercial firm in Madras and began dabbling in acting from 1953 onwards under the screen name Sandhya.

Jayalalitha History

Jayalalitha remained under the care of her mother’s sister Padmavalli and maternal grandparents from 1950 to 1958 in Mysore. While still in Bangalore, Jayalalithaa attended Bishop Cotton Girls’ School.

In later interviews, Jayalalithaa spoke emotionally about how she missed her mother growing up in a different city. She had the opportunity to visit her mother during summer holidays.

After her aunt Padmavalli’s marriage in 1958, Jayalalitha moved to Madras and began to live with her mother. She completed her education at Sacred Heart Matriculation School (popularly known as Church Park Presentation Convent or Presentation Church Park Convent).

She excelled at school and school offered her a government scholarship to pursue further education. Jayalalithaa won Gold State Award for coming first in 10th standard in the state of Tamil Nadu.

She joined Stella Maris College however discontinued her studies due pressure from her mother and became a film actress. She was fluent in several languages, including Tamil, Arabic, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam and English.

Jayalalithaa first came into prominence as a leading film actress in the mid-1960s. Though she had entered the profession reluctantly, upon the urging of her mother to support the family, Jayalalithaa worked prolifically.

She appeared in 140 films between 1961 and 1980, primarily in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages. Jayalalithaa received praise for her versatility as an actor and for her dancing skills, earning the sobriquet “queen of Tamil cinema”.

She was fond of having dogs as her pets.But after death of Julie, a Spitz, in 1998 she could not bear loss of death of her pets and hence discontinued keeping pet dogs at her home.

Jayalalitha Sasikala

In the early 1980s, Sasikala gained acquaintance with Jayalalithaa, who was then the Propaganda Secretary of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Since Sasikala helped in video coverage of party meetings and distribution of policies of AIADMK through CD’s, Sasikala and Jayalalithaa gradually became very close.

On 19 December 2011, Jayalalithaa expelled Sasikala Natarajan and 13 others including Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan, T. T. V. Dhinakaran, their relatives, and Jayalalithaa’s foster son V. N. Sudhakaran from the AIADMK.

Poeple consider this act of Jayalalithaa a way to prove that she was not under the influence of Sasikala and her family. Later the matter was resolved by 31 March 2012 when Jayalalitha reinstated Sasikala Natarajan after issuing a written apology.

In a meeting held on 29 December 2016 – the first meeting after Jayalalithaa’s death on 5 December 2016 – the AIADMK general council unanimously appointed Sasikala as the party’s general secretary

Jayalalithaa House

J Jayalalithaa stayed for over three decades in Veda Nilayam, the sprawling bungalow located at the upscale Poes Garden area.
Her brother’s wedding took place at her Veda Nilayam home in Poes Gardens in 1972.

Her brother Jayakumar, his wife Vijayalakshmi and their daughter Deepa Jayakumar lived in Poes Garden with Jayalalitha till 1978. Jayalalitha mother bought the bungalow called ‘Sandhya Illam’ so his brother & family moved to new bunglow.

Jayalalitha Movie

While a child, Jayalalithaa acted in the Kannada-language film Sri Shaila Mahathme (1961), which had Rajkumar and Krishna Kumari in lead roles.

She appeared in 140 films between 1961 and 1980, primarily in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages. Jayalalithaa received praise for her versatility as an actor and for her dancing skills, earning the sobriquet “queen of Tamil cinema”.

Jayalalithaa won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress for Thanga Gopuram in 1971, Raman Thediya Seethai in 1972, Suryagandhi in 1973, Thirumangalyam in 1974, Yarukkum Vetkam Illai in 1975.

In many of her interviews she often said her mother asked her to entered  films industry and M.G.Ramachandran requested her to entered politics.

Jayalalitha and MGR

Among her frequent co-stars was M. G. Ramachandran, or MGR, a Tamil cultural icon who leveraged his immense popularity with the masses into a successful political career. In 1982, she joined the AIADMK, which was founded by MGR.
MGR wanted her to be a member of the Rajya Sabha because of her fluency in English. Indira Gandhi lauded Jayalalitha for the various speeches she made on issues including the one on internal security in Rajya Sabha.

MGR gave her key responsibilities, including in the implementation of the landmark noon-meals scheme. She was taught her lessons in welfare politics by M.G.Ramachandran.

Later when MGR fell ill, she campaigned extensively for the party before the 1984 election.

Following MGR death in 1987, Jayalalithaa entered the Assembly successfully contesting the subsequent 1989 elections on the basis of being MGR’s political heir. Jayalalithaa became the first woman to be elected Leader of the Opposition.

Jayalalitha Memorial (Jayalalitha Samadhi)

Tamil Nadu government has declared Jayalalitha memorial on Mariana beach in Chennai as the final resting place of jayalalitha.

Jayalalitha Memorial is planned next to the “Anna Samadhi” and “MGR Memorial” at Marina beach, Chennai.

Hundreds of visitors pay home page at the monuments of Anna and MGR at Marina beach. A lot more visitors are expected at the samadhi of Jayalalitha since she has a huge number of followers in the state.

Jayalalitha CM

In 1991 Jayalalithaa became chief minister, Tamil Nadu’s youngest, for the first time. She earned a reputation for a punishing work ethic and for centralising state power.

The successful cradle-baby scheme, which enabled mothers to anonymously offer their newborns for adoption, emerged during this time.

Despite an official salary of only a rupee a month, Jayalalithaa indulged in public displays of wealth, culminating in a lavish wedding for her foster son in 1995. In the 1996 election, the AIADMK lost election and Jayalalithaa herself lost her seat.

The new Karunanidhi government filed several corruption cases against her, and she had to spend time in jail.

Her fortunes revived in the 1998 general election, as the AIADMK became a key component of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 1998–99 government; her withdrawal of support toppled it and triggered another general election just a year later.

The AIADMK returned to power in 2001, although court debarred Jayalalithaa personally from contesting due to the corruption cases.

Within a few months of her taking oath as chief minister, in September 2001, she was disqualified from holding office, and forced to cede the chair to loyalist O. Panneerselvam.

Upon her acquittal six months later, Jayalalithaa returned as chief minister to complete her term. Noted for its ruthlessness to political opponents, she arrested many people in midnight. Soon her government grew unpopular.

Another period (2006–11) in the opposition followed, before Governor sworn Jayalalithaa as chief minister for the fourth time after the AIADMK swept the 2011 assembly election.

Three years into her tenure, court convicted her in a disproportionate-assets case, rendering her disqualified to hold office. She returned as chief minister after being acquitted in May 2015.

Jayalalitha Death

In the 2016 assembly election, she became the first Tamil Nadu chief minister since MGR in 1984 to be voted back into office. That September, she fell severely ill and, following 75 days of hospitalization, died on 5 December 2016 due to cardiac arrest.

Jayalalitha Age

Jayalalithaa was born on 24 February 1948 at Melukote, Mandya district of Karnataka. She was 68 years old when she died due to cardiac arrest.