Personal background of Jayalalithaa

Personal background of Jayalalithaa   

Jayalalithaa was born in Mysore (now in the state of Karnataka) at a place called Melukote on 24 February 1948. She hailed from a Tamil Iyengar family. Her father Jayaram, a lawyer by profession, passed away when she was just two years old. Consequently, Jayalalitha and her brother Jayakumar had to shift to Bangalore along with their mother.Her mother, Vedavathi, started working in Tamil cinema with the screen name of Sandhya. ‘Jaya’, meaning 'victorious', is a prefix used in the names of Jayalalitha, her brother Jayakumar and many other members of their family. This portrays the family’s association with the Wodeyar Dynasty of Mysore, which dates back to 1880-1920 when Jayalalitha’s grandfather, a surgeon by profession, used to serve the Mysore Kingdom. 

Jayalalitha completed her schooling from Bishop Cotton Girls' High School, Chennai, and Sacred Heart Matriculation School, also popularly known as Presentation Church Park Convent, in Chennai. She was a very good student and received scholarship for higher studies from the Government of India after completing her matriculation in 1964. However, she took up films shortly after that. Her career saw her working in films of different languages, including English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

She was a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and had proficiency in other dance forms like Kathak, Mohiniyattam and Manipuri as well. She also lent her voice as singer in some of her films. She had proficiency in English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. Her brother, Jayakumar, passed away in the early 1990s. Jayalalitha remained unmarried.