Jayaraman Jayalalitha, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu passed away on Sunday, Dec 4, 2016 in Chennai. She was 68 years old. This obituary from the BBC sums up Jayalalitha’s life in films and politics. She was popularly known as Amma (mother).

For many Jayalalitha was the “Iron Lady” of Tamil Nadu, the Southern state that fused films and politics for decades. Films were consciously used as a political vehicle in Tamil Nadu politics. Since the late 1960s t0 now, the state has had only 3 politicians as its Chief Minister and all of them had strong ties to the Tamil film industry.

Jayalalitha began her acting career in the Tamil film industry and went to act in many hit film in Tamil &Telugu. But, there is another avatar of Jayalalithat that not many people got to see or remember and this was  Jayalalitha as a young, charismatic and playful actress.

Here is a very rare and unusual interview that Jayalalitha did with Simi Grewal. Jayalalitha was quite candid and shares storeis about her childhood and why she ended up as an actress in the Indian film industry.

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