Jayalalithaa also acted in a few Bollywood films.
She starred in 28 films with Tamil Superstar MGR, who would later found the AIADMK.
Jayalalithaa’s last film was Nadhiyai Thedi Vandha Kadal in 1980. In 1982, at the age of 34, she joined the AIADMK and went straight to the top echelons of the party as propaganda secretary, much to chagrin of many seasoned partymen, and was soon nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
To her many supporters Jayalalithaa is Amma (mother) or Puratchi Thalaivi (Revolutionary Leader). She was Ammu to MG Ramachandran or MGR, her political mentor at whose statue she paid tribute in her first public appearance in eight months.
MGR died in 1987, in harness as Chief Minister. The next year the AIADMK split with one faction supporting MGR’s wife Janaki and the other supporting Jayalalithaa, who laid claim to her mentor’s political legacy.
In 1991, Jayalalithaa became Chief Minister for the first time. She lost the 1996 Tamil Nadu elections and the DMK government that succeeded her filed the corruption case that she was acquitted in earlier this month.
She won her second term in 2001 and her third in 2011.
