When she had to travel by road at night MGR would arrange for an escort vehicle. After a stone throwing incident at Jayalalithaa’s house, he is said to have ordered a special contingent of security personnel to be posted at her house.
The tumultuous ups and downs in her relationship with MGR started in the early 1970s when MGR increasingly began to act with younger heroines like Latha and Manjula, thanks to the dogged perseverance of RMV. MGR also got preoccupied with politics as he was the DMK party treasurer in Karunanidhi’s government. Then serious differences arose between him and Karunanidhi, but according to RMV even this was because of Jayalalithaa’s influence.
MGR and Karunanidhi had once been close. When C.N. Annadurai died Nedunjezhian, the senior-most, was expected to succeed him. But MGR strongly recommended Karunanidhi’s name and through his influence over party workers got him elected to the post. Karunanidhi, however, threatened by MGR’s popularity, cleverly excluded him when he formed the cabinet and made him the treasurer of the DMK party.
