Vijayalalitha or Vijaya Lalitha was an Indian actress who appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films in the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for her appearances in Rani Mera Naam (1972), Baazigar (1972) and Saakshi (1967). She is also the aunt of Vijayashanti, Telugu superstar actress turned politician.

Early life and background

Vijayalalitha is a relative to actress Vijayashanti. Vijayashanti is the daughter of Vijayalalitha's elder sister. Vijaya Lalitha has acted in 860 movies.

Career

Lalitha starred in many Telugu films in the 1960s and 1970s. She also starred in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and a few Hindi movies, such as ''Sadhu Aur Shaitaan'', ''Rani Mera Naam'' and ''Hathkadi''. She was well known as the "Female James Bond" in the Tamil and Telugu industries and was frequently paired with "South India James Bond" actor Jaishankar in many Tamil movies. Her dance and song sequence "Palinginal Oru Maalikai" from ''Vallavan Oruvan'' is known as an evergreen until now. Some of her memorable Tamil movies together with Jaishankar are ''Neelagiri Express'', ''Kannan Varuvan'', ''Kalam Vellum'', ''Mappilai Azhaippu'', ''Nootrukku Nooru'', ''Nil Gavani Kadhali'', ''Akka Thangai'', ''Pattanathil Bhootham'', ''Vallavan Oruvan'', ''Ner Vazhi'', ''Delhi To Madras'' and more. She acted in several female-oriented movies and is known for her punctuality in film sets. She regularly acted with N. T. Rama Rao and Akkeneni Nageswara Rao in Telugu movies. She produced the Telugu movie, ''Oka Naari Vanda Thupaakulu'' (1973) and cast herself as the heroine as well. She was very famous at her career peak in 1977 to 1981, receiving more movies. Within a short period, she created sensation as an action heroine. In some of the Tamil movies she appeared in arrogant and negative roles. She acted opposite Nagesh in ''Then Kinnam'', ''Hello Partner'' and with M. G. Ramachandran in ''Kadhal Vaaganam''. She portrayed "Sheela", an arrogant girl in ''Shanti Nilayam''. Throughout 3 decades, Vijayalalitha has acted in 860 movies majoring all 4 South Indian and Hindi languages as well.