Rachitha Mahalakshmi is an Indian Tamil actress from Chennai. She is well known as Saravanan Meenatchi actress. Ravhitha is born and grow up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She completed her schooling and college in same city. After completing her college, she entered in tamil serial world and also got chance to feature in big screen.

Lakshmi (born Yaragudipati Venkatalakshmi on 13 December 1952)^[1] is an Indian actress known for her work in the Indian film industry. She made her film debut through a Tamil filmSri Valli. Her debut in Tamil film as an actress was with Jeevanaamsam (1968) and in Telugu film was with Bandhavyalu (1968). In 1974, Her second Malayalam film, Chattakari, which went on to become a blockbuster throughout India.

She then went on to appear in a number of commercially successful films in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and various other languages. She has won one National Film Award for Best Actress, nine Filmfare Awards South, three Nandi Awards, Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress, Karnataka State 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.

• 5Partial filmography

Early life[edit]

Lakshmi was born and brought up in a Telugu & Tamil Brahmin family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her mother Kumari Rukmini was a Tamil actress.^[2] Her father, Yaragudipati Varada Rao, was an Indian film producer, director, thespian, screenwriter, editor and actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil cinema.^[3]

Career[edit]

She established herself as a successful and popular actress in South India in the 1970s, acting in all four South Indian languages: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Lakshmi rose to fame with her first Malayalam movie Chattakari (1974), which won her the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress. This has the distinction of being the first Malayalam film to run continuously for 40 weeks in a Bangalore theatre. Chattakari (1974) was remade in Hindi as Julie (1975) and in Telugu as Miss Julie Prema Katha (1975). In addition to a Filmfare Best Actress Award,^[4] she also won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards for the 'most outstanding work of the year', for her work in Julie.^[5] She is known for her versatility as an actress and for the glamorous outlook she embodied. Her acting in the Telugu film Panthulamma is often credited as one of her best performances.^[6]

After the success of her debut Malayalam film Chattakari, she starred in many other films in Malayalam. She won Filmfare Awards for Best Actress for her performances in Chalanum and Mohiniyaattam.

She has acted with almost all the leading actors and stars of South India, but it was her combination with the popular actor Anant Nag in the 70s and 80s that struck a chord with the audience. Nag and Lakshmi are considered one of the all-time greatest pairs in South Indian cinema. They acted together in more than 25 films. Their pair was considered the right recipe for success. Most of the films based on TaRaSu novels were based on the life of young middle class couples.

After her success in Julie, however, Lakshmi didn't star in many Hindi films and instead concentrated on doing more South Indian films. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal (1977), becoming one of the first South Indian actresses to win that category for a Tamil film. When her career as a leading lady ended in the 1980s, she started playing supporting roles as a mother and later as grandmother. She played Aishwarya Rai's grandmother in Jeans (1998) and Kareena Kapoor's grandmother in Hulchul (2004).

She has performed in more than 400 films and has also been involved in politics.^{[citation needed]}

Under K. Balachander's supervision, she made her directorial debut with a remake of Yours, Mine and Ours: the Kannada film Makkala Sainya (1980 Tamil version Mazhalai Pattalam).^[7]

Lakshmi is fluent in all four South Indian languages. She took a break from acting to host two talk shows, including the Tamil talk show Achamillai, Achamillai.^{[citation needed]}She hosted a talk show in Kannada for Suvarna channel called Idu Kathe Alla Jeevana.^[8] She also hosts a talk show in Tamil for Vijay TV called Kadhai Alla Nijam. She has hosted a talk show in Kannada for Suvarna channel called Neena? Naana?

After the shows ended, she returned to act in films.^{[citation needed]}

Currently she is on the judges' panel for the Malayalam reality show Champions on Surya TV. She is also a judge for a Kannada reality show called Drama Juniors on Zee Kannada.

Personal life[edit]

Her first marriage was to Bhaskar in 1969, who worked with an insurance company. The couple has a daughter, actress Aishwarya, born in 1971. Lakshmi divorced Bhaskar in 1974.^[9]

She fell in love with her co-star Mohan Sharma on the sets of Chattakari and married him in 1975, but it ended up in divorce in 1980.

While she was shooting En Uyir Kannamma, she and actor-director M. Sivachandran fell in love and got married in 1987. The couple adopted a girl named Samyuktha in 2000.^[10]

Awards[edit]

National Film Awards

• 1977 – National Film Award for Best Actress for Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal

Filmfare Awards

• 1976 – Filmfare Award for Best Actress for Julie^[11]

Filmfare Awards South

• 1974 – Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actress for Dikkatra Parvathi^[11]
• 1974 – Filmfare Award for Best Malayalam Actress for Chattakari^[11]
• 1975 – Filmfare Award for Best Malayalam Actress for Chalanum^[11]
• 1976 – Filmfare Award for Best Malayalam Actress for Mohiniyaattam^[11]
• 1983 – Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actress for Unmaigal
• 1986 – Filmfare Award for Best Telugu Actress for Sravana Meghalu
• 1993 – Filmfare Award for Best Kannada Actress for Hoovu Hannu
• 1998 – Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (South)

Nandi Awards

• Nandi Award for Best Actress - Panthulamma (1977)
• Nandi Award for Best Actress - Sravana Meghalu (1986)
• Nandi Award for Best Character Actress - Murari (2001)
• Nandi Special Jury Award - Mithunam (2012)

Karnataka State Film Awards

• 1993 – Best Actress for Hoovu Hannu
• 2008 – Best Supporting Actress for Vamshi
• 2017 – Dr. Rajkumar Award

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

• 1978 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress for Oru Nadigai Naatakam Paarkiraal

Kerala State Film Awards

• 1974 – Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress for Chattakari

Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards

• 1975 - Most outstanding work of the year for Julie^[12]

Partial filmography[edit]

In order of languages in which she acted in the most to fewest films.

Tamil[edit]

Malayalam[edit]

Kannada[edit]

Telugu[edit]

Hindi[edit]

Serial Actress Mahalakshmi

References[edit]

Mahalakshmi Serial Today

1. ^Lakshmi (12 March 2016). Weekend with Ramesh Season 2 - Episode 23 - March 12, 2016 - Full Episode (in Kannada). Zee Kannada. Event occurs at 4:50. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
2. ^'Sri Valli—1945'. The Hindu. Chennai, India. 28 December 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
3. ^Guy, Randor (22 August 2003). 'A revolutionary filmmaker'. The Hindu. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
4. ^1st Filmfare Awards 1953
5. ^'69th & 70th Annual Hero Honda BFJA Awards 2007'. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
6. ^60 years of Telugu cinema a book published in 2007
7. ^'KB: Kollywood's Discovery Channel'. 3 January 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2016 – via The Hindu.
8. ^Sathyendran, Nita (23 January 2009). 'Timeless, ageless'. The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
9. ^Warrier, Shobha (3 March 2001). ''I don't want to act with half-baked idiots any longer''. Rediff. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
10. ^''I'll act till my last breath' - Lakshmi'. Screen. 27 July 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
11. ^ ^abcdehttps://books.google.com/books?ei=o6TSTZTZENHOrQf55YWmCQ&ct=result&id=kh–2AAAAIAAJ&dq=gnana+oli&q=chattakari#search_anchor
12. ^'39th Annual BFJA Awards'. BFJA. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2012.

External links[edit]

• Lakshmi on IMDb

Tamil Serial Actress Mahalakshmi