Lakshmi (actress)

Lakshmi
Lakshmi at Naan Suvasikkum Sivaji book launch in 2015
Born
Yaragudipadi Venkata Mahalakshmi

(1952-12-13) 13 December 1952 (age 71)
Madras, Madras State, India
Years active1968–present
Spouses
  • Bhaskaran
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1969; div. 1974)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1975; div. 1980)​
  • ​
    (m. 1987)​
Children2, including Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran
Parents

Yaragudipadi Venkata Mahalakshmi (born 13 December 1952[1]), known professionally as Lakshmi, is an Indian actress known for her works primarily in all 4 Southern Indian language film industries (distributing her acting career across all four languages almost equally). She has also acted in some Hindi films. Her debut as a full fledged actress happened with the Tamil film Jeevanaamsam in 1968. In the same year, she acted in the Kannada film Goa Dalli CID 999 and Telugu film Bandhavyalu.

In 1974, her debut Malayalam film, Chattakari went on to become a blockbuster throughout India. She has acted in over 650 films as confirmed in the popular Kannada TV Show Weekend With Ramesh on Zee Kannada channel. Her performance in Mithunam (2012) is regarded as one of the 100 Greatest Performances of the Decade by Film Companion.[citation needed] Lakshmi then went on to appear in a number of commercially successful films in various languages without a hesitation or diction. She dubs her voice for all of her movies, irrespective of the language and remains one of the very few critically acclaimed stars to achieve this stage.

In a career spanning more than five decades she has won one National Film Award for Best Actress, nine Filmfare Awards South, One Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress, Nandi Awards, Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for the movie Hoovu Hannu, the Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards and various other state awards.

Lakshmi made her Bollywood debut in 1975, with the woman-centric Julie, the remake of Malayalam film Chattakkari. After appearing as a lead actress for more than a decade, she switched over to character roles. She is the only actress who has won the Filmfare Awards South in all four south languages[2][3][4][5][6][7][excessive citations]

  1. ^ "Episode 23". Weekend with Ramesh. Season 2 (in Kannada). 12 March 2016. Event occurs at [time needed]. Zee Kannada. Retrieved 4 August 2022. (subscription required)
  2. ^ https://archive.org/download/41stAnnualFilmfareBestTeluguFilmKannadaActorActressDirector/41st%20annual%20filmfare%20best%20telugu%20film%20kannada%20actor%20actress%20director.jpg [bare URL image file]
  3. ^ Reed, Sir Stanley (22 August 1976). "The Times of India Directory and Year Book Including Who's who". Times of India Press – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "The Times of India Directory and Year Book Including Who's who". Times of India Press. 22 August 1978 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "The Times of India Directory and Year Book Including Who's who". 22 August 1980 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ "34th Annual Filmfare Awards South Winners". 28 May 2017. Archived from the original on 28 May 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "Collections". 1991.