Jayalalithaa Case Study

J.JAYALALITHAA

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INTRODUCTION

Shortly and profoundly known as “Amma” or “Jaya”, Miss Jayalalithaa Jayaram currently enjoys the title of being the second female Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu after Miss Janaki Ramachandran. On 23 May 2015, she took the oath for the Chief Minister’s office for the 5th time. She is the General Secretary of the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Fondly called as “Amma” , meaning “mother” and “Puratchi Thalaivi” ,meaning “revolutionary leader” , she had been acting in a numerous number of South Indian films before she joined politics in 1984 as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

CHILDHOOD

Jayalalithaa was born in a Tamil Brahmin family, an Iyengar family. She was born on 24th February, 1948 at Melukote which is located in Pandavapura Taluk of Mandya district in the State of Mysore, now known as Karnataka. She was named “Komalavalli” by her mom at her birth because as per Iyengar custom two names are given, although her pet name was “Ammu”. The prefix “Jaya” had been added to all the names in the family by jayalalithaa’s grandfather since he had been in service under the Mysore Kingdom ruled by Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, from 1880 to 1920. Her father, Jayaram was a lawyer by profession and had passed away when she was a little older than 2 years of age. After this misfortunate happening, her mother Vedavathi or Vedavalli took Jaya and her elder brother Jayakumar to Bangalore, where her maternal parents lived.

Vedavathi started working as a typist in one of the small firms over there to contribute whatever possibly she could, since she had already been adding a burden to her parents.  Her sister, Vidyavathi who was profoundly known as the actress “Ambujam” was working as an airhostess in one of the big airlines companies at that time. She had got some breaks in the Tamil film industry at that time and hence, she encouraged Vedavathi to come to Chennai and learn things from the theatrical point of view. Vedavathi then hit the big screen and came to be known as actress Sandhya.

Jayalalithaa had been training in Bharathanatyam since she was 3 years of age. She is also proficient in other dance forms like Kathak, Mohiniyattam and Manipuri. A lot of programs and functions across India has been entertained by her dance performances. She did her Arangetram as well. Arangetram is a function that is conducted to account her as a dancer upon the completion of her formal training. At this function the chief guest was Sir Shivaji Ganesan and he had praised little Jaya saying that she resembled a queen who was sitting on a golden throne. At the age of 4, young Jaya had started learning Carnatic music and later on had also sang many songs for her own films.

EDUCATION

Jayalalithaa was very bright as a student. She had attended Bishop Cotton Girls’ School in Bangalore where she had been living with her mother, aunt, brother and grandparents. But when her mother had decided to bring Jayalalithaa and her brother to Chennai since she had been induced with the interest of joining the cine industry by her sister, Jaya had to change her school because of change in place. She had completed her schooling in Sacred Heart Matriculation School which is popularly known as Church Park Presentation Convent or Presentation Church Park Convent in Chennai. She was that bright during school such that the Government had offered her a scholarship to pursue further education at the Stella Maris College in Chennai adding to the fact that she showed immense interest in doing law after senior education. However it doesn’t appear as though she had accepted this offer since sources say that she had been forced by her mother at an early stage to join the cine world along with her because of her own success.

FILM CAREER

Sandhya had persuaded her daughter into the film industry saying she would have to be working only during the summer vacations and that her studies will, in no way be disturbed. And then “Chinnada Gombe along with her daughter Jaya happened which was directed by Sir B.R. Panthulu. According to sources her first film that was actually released is an English movie named “Epistle”. 1964 saw her as a lead actress in the movie Chinnada Gombe in kannada. She made her debut in the Tamil industry in 1965 in a film called Vennira Aadai. It was directed Mr. C.V Sridhar. Tamil films saw Jayalalithaa as the first heroine in the 1960s to be appearing in short-sleeved dresses, skirts, gowns of knee-length and woolen suits. “Pattikada pattanama” was her film starring alongside Sir Shivaji Ganesan that won the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in Tamil. Her most notable Hindi film was Izzat in which she had paired up with Dharmendra.

 In 28 films Jayalalithaa has paired with Sir Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran, out of which 19 films were platinum jubilee hits and 8 were golden jubilee hits. “Anamitta kai” was the only movie of theirs that was a silver jubilee hit just because it had been a black and white film. Their first film as a pair had been “Ayirathil oruvan”. Directors preferred Jaya opposite to Dr. MGR rather than the beautiful Saroja Devi, who was the highest paid heroine of those times and was the number 1 heroine at that time in Tamil industry.

Jaya had acted in another 28 movies in the Telugu industry and each and every one of these movies were platinum jubilee hits. Such talent and beauty encouraged support from everyone. She was not only admired but also respected for such bold glamour and fashion for it really took guts to wear skimpy and fashionable clothes in the days of that period. 3 consecutive hits “Veniradai”, “Kanni Thai”, and “Ayirathil oruvan” made her an instant in the year of her debut. On being asked if she liked acting she had replied saying that she wouldn’t agree upon liking acting but she did admit that acting was something that was inborn and came naturally to her. She had never tried imitating anybody and did not follow and particular method. Well, her talent proved her being spontaneous then. Her last film was 1980, Nadhiyai Thedi Vandha Kadal.