Lakshmi (actress)
Yaragudipadi Venkata Mahalakshmi (born 13 December 1952), known professionally as Lakshmi, is an Indian actress known for her works primarily in the South Indian film industry (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.
Lakshmi | |
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Lakshmi at Naan Suvasikkum Sivaji book launch in 2015 | |
| Born | Yaragudipadi Venkata Mahalakshmi 13 December 1952 Madras, Madras State, India |
| Years active | 1968–present |
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| Children | 2, including Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran |
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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. 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 as Filmfare Award Best Actress for eight times in various Indian languages. Till now she is the only actress who has won Filmfare award for best actress in all the 5 major film industries namely Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Till now no South actress has won state award in all the 4 south states except Lakshmi. She is also the only Actress who has won Kerala State Film Awards, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka for best Actress and the National Award. This makes her the most versatile and popular actress across South India and also in the Hindi Belt which is now referred as Pan India, so she was one among the early pan Indian star.