Jayalalitha was born on 24 February1948 at Melukote, Pandavapura taluka, Mandya district, then in Mysore State (now Karnataka) to Jayaram and Vedavalli in a Tamil Brahmin Iyengar family. Jayalalitha acted as a child artist in a Kannada-language film Sri Shaila Mahathme (1961), which featured Rajkumar and Krishna Kumari in lead roles. Like every single child sitting in a classroom, Jaya also used to weave dreams. She had a huge crush on the former cricket player Nari Contractor and the famous Bollywood star Shammi Kapoor. Jaya even used to collect photographs of Nari, Shammi and Nutan, her's how the simplicity of the lady glints out. Besides being a brilliant student and topper of the class, she got mocked by some of her classmates, for her mother was not a profound or a leading actor. But her school days ended with one of the most cherished memories when Jaya was awarded for the best outgoing student of the year.

Thalaivi: J. Jayalalithaa's journey from an actor to a politician

Kangana Ranaut starrer Thalaivi trilingual helmed by A. L. Vijay. The story is about the life of the late politician and film actor J. Jayalalithaa who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Let's get a brief on Thalaivi's journey from film to politics.

Thalaivi: J. Jayalalithaa's Journey From An Actor To A Politician

Jayalalithaa's debut in Tamil cinema with a lead role in Vennira Aadai (1965), helmed by C. V. Sridhar. She made her debut in Telugu films as lead actor in Manushulu Mamathalu opposite Akkineni Nageshwara Rao. Her last Telugu release was also opposite Akkineni in the film Nayakudu Vinayakudu, which was released in 1980.

She also featured in one Hindi film called Izzat, with Dharmendra as her male co-star in 1968. She starred in 28 box-office hits with M.G. Ramachandran between 1965 and 1973. The first one with MGR was B.R. Panthalu's Aayirathil Oruvan in 1965 and their last film together was Pattikaattu Ponnaiya in 1973.

Jayalalithaa holds the record of having been the female Tamil actor with maximum silver jubilee hits in her career, 85 hits of 92 Tamil films as main female lead heroine and in addition she also had all 28 films in Telugu as silver jubilee hits. She was the highest paid Indian female actor from 1965–1980.

She acquired the reputation of being a multi-faceted actor equally comfortable in fantasy and mythological genres as well as in modern social dramas and hence in 1969, in Tamil Conference, she was given the tag of "Kaveri Thandha Kalai Selvi".

Jayalalithaa claims that MGR, who had been chief minister for the state since 1977, was the key in introducing her to politics. In 1982, she joined the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which was founded by MGR. She was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1989 as a representative of the Bodinayakkanur (State Assembly Constituency). This election saw the Jayalalithaa-led faction of the AIADMK that won 27 seats and Jayalalithaa became the first woman to be elected leader of the opposition.

On 25 March 1989, amidst heavy violence inside the house among the ruling DMK party members and the opposition, Jayalilatha was brutally attacked and visibly molested by the ruling members in front of the assembly speaker on the behest of chief minister Karunanidhi. Jayalalitha left the Assembly with her torn saree -drawing a parallel with the shameful disrobing of Draupadi in the epic Mahabharata.

In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi days before the elections, her alliance with the Indian National Congress enabled her to ride the wave of sympathy that gave the coalition victory. Re-elected to the assembly, she became the first female and the youngest chief minister of Tamil Nadu to serve a full term, serving from June 24, 1991 to May 12,1996.

On September 22, 2016, Jayalalithaa was admitted to hospital in Chennai, as she suffered from infection and acute dehydration. She was also said to be suffering from severe pulmonary infection and septicaemia, which were cured. On December 4, she was re-admitted to the critical care unit after suffering a cardiac arrest around 16:45. Her funeral procession was one of the biggest Tamil Nadu ever witnessed after those of C. N. Annadurai, MGR and Sivaji Ganesan. Thousands attended her funeral and paid their final respects to the departed leader.