Vijayashanti is an Indian film actress and a politician from Andhra Pradesh. She has acted in over 185 movies in seven languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
Prior to joining politics in 2004, she was a leading actress in Telugu and Tamil films.
The actress was born as Shanti on 24th June 1966. Yester years Telugu film actress Vijaya Lalitha is her aunt.
She began her acting career in 1979 at the age of 13 as the leading lady in the Tamil film Kallukkul Eeram ("The moisture inside stone / rock") directed by the legendary Tamil film-maker Bharati Raja.
The same year, she debuted in her native Telugu with the movie Kilaadi Krishnudu, pairing opposite superstar Krishna.
For the first few years, she portrayed mostly glamour roles. Notable among them is her role in the Telugu film Satyam-Shivam (1981), the cast of which included the two legends of Telugu Cinema - NTR, and ANR.
Vijayashanti's first break as a performer came in the 1983 Telugu film Neti Bharatam directed by T. Krishna.
The next few years saw her in performance-oriented roles. In films like Desamlo Dongalu Paddaaru, Vandemaataram, Pratighatana, Aruna Kiranam, Repati Pourulu, and Devalayam she appeared in roles which demanded good acting skills. She also played parts which required a certain allure in films like Challenge, Desodhdhaarakudu, Pasivaadi Praanam, Muddula Krishnaiah, Agni Parvatam, and Gang Leader.
By 1985 she was exclusively acting in Telugu films. She became a Glamour Queen of the Telugu film industry.
In 1990, the blockbuster movie Karthavyam, her performance as a tough cop (modeled after real-life supercop Kiran Bedi) won her the National Film Award from Indian Government and an Andhra Pradesh State award for best actress. She became third women to win national award for best actress from Telugu industry. The success of this movie saw her moving away from glamorous roles and limiting herself to tough lady roles. These tough lady roles made her a lady super star in Telugu.
In 1990, Kartavyam was dubbed into Tamil as Vijayanthi IPS and its success brought her actress in Tamil cinema as well. It was also remade in Hindi as Tejaswini, with herself playing the lead role. As expected, Tejaswini did very well at the Hindi box-office.
Following the success of Vijayanthi IPS, the producers of her films began releasing Tamil versions of her movies simultaneously with the Telugu Movies. After she started concentrating on Action roles. some thing special is her nativity showing.
Her mindblowing performance in "Osey Ramulamma" earned her a Nandi Award for Best Actress in 1997.
In 2009, the actress will appear in a film, Zamaanat (2009), which has Amitabh Bachchan and Karishma Kapoor in the lead roles.
From 1999 her movie appearances decreased as she focused on her political career. By 2004 she had stopped signing new films.
In 1997 she started her political career by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Soon she was made the secretary of BJP's Women's Wing (Bharateeya Mahila Morcha). During the 1999 Indian general elections she was named BJP's contestant from the Cuddapah (or Kadapa) Lok Sabha seat against Sonia Gandhi of Congress(I) (however, she withdrew from the race after Sonia Gandhi decided to contest from Bellary).
She started her own political party, Talli Telangana, which merged into Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) due to lack of strenght and support, in January 2009.
In 2009 General Election of 15th Lok Sabha she won Medak seat. She is actively participating in the telangana agitation for a separate state for the telangana region.
She is credited as "The Lady Superstar" of South Indian cinema. At the peak of her career, she was among the highest paid movie stars in India.
She was mostly paired with Chiranjivi in 19 films, and then Bala Krishna (in 17 films), Krishna (in 12 films).
She played a wide variety of roles including glamorous roles, action heroine, tough cop, Goddess, sentimental roles and proved herself in all roles. She is ever rememberd for her versatality including acting, dancing, fighting skills.
She is believed to be married Srinivas Prasad and having two children. It's never disclosed to public.
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