Vijayashanti

Vijayashanti (born Moturi Vijaya Shanthi, 24 June 1966) is an Indian actress, film producer and politician. Over a film career spanning 40 years she has acted in 200 feature films, mostly in Telugu but also in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. She is widely known by the titles “Lady Superstar”, “Lady Amitabh” and “Action Queen of Telugu Cinema”, and holds the record among Telugu heroines for the most industry hits, with five films that were the top grossers of their time. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for playing a police officer in Karthavyam (1990), and her other honours include four Nandi Awards for Best Actress, seven Filmfare Awards South, a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and the Kalaimamani Award from the Tamil Nadu government.

Early life and debut

She was born in Madras to Satti Srinivasa Prasad, from Anaparthi in East Godavari, and Satti Varalakshmi, from Warangal district. The actress and producer Vijayalalitha is her aunt. Vijayashanti has said she prefers to think of herself as belonging to Telangana rather than Madras. She finished her 10th class at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Chennai before starting in films.

She began acting at the age of 14, in Bharathiraja’s Tamil film Kallukkul Eeram (1980). The same year she made her Telugu debut in Kilaadi Krishnudu, opposite Krishna and directed by Vijaya Nirmala, and she soon had a part in Satyam-Sivam (1981), whose cast included N. T. Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageswara Rao.

Rise to stardom

After early roles as sisters and daughters, Pellichoopulu (1983), a remake of K. Bhagyaraj’s Tamil film Thooral Ninnu Pochchu, brought her recognition. Her breakthrough was Neti Bharatam (1983), which began her run of women-centric films with director T. Krishna, who had spotted her on a film set and predicted she would become a fine actress. Pratighatana (1985), one of that year’s biggest blockbusters, won her a Nandi Award for the first time. In K. Viswanath’s Swayam Krushi (1987), opposite Chiranjeevi, she played an illiterate woman who falls for a cobbler; the film was screened at the Moscow International Film Festival.

She balanced these roles with major commercial films. Her pairings with Chiranjeevi, across 19 films, and Nandamuri Balakrishna, across 17, were big box office draws, and her hits included Yamudiki Mogudu (1988), Kondaveeti Donga (1990) and Gang Leader (1991). In Mondi Mogudu Penki Pellam (1992) she played a bold woman speaking Telangana dialect. She also played the antagonist opposite Rajinikanth in Mannan and an investigative reporter opposite Kamal Haasan in Indrudu Chandrudu. In the 1990s she was the highest-paid heroine in India, earning as much as co-stars such as Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan.

Karthavyam and action roles

The blockbuster Karthavyam (1990), directed by Mohan Gandhi, cast her as a tough police officer and won her the National Film Award and a state award for Best Actress. According to the source, it was made for about 90 lakh rupees and grossed over 7 crore in the southern territories alone. She was the third woman from Telugu cinema to win the national award, after Sharada and Archana. Dubbed into Tamil as Vyjayanthi IPS, it made her famous in Tamil cinema too, and she played the lead again in its Hindi remake, Tejaswini. The film was produced by A. M. Ratnam, who had been her make-up man.

From then on she concentrated on woman-oriented roles and often performed risky stunts herself without doubles. She played a dual role in Kodi Ramakrishna‘s Police Lockup (1993), which brought another Filmfare Award, and in Dasari Narayana Rao’s Osey Ramulamma (1997) she played a downtrodden woman who rises against her oppressors. It was the year’s biggest blockbuster and won her a fourth Nandi Award and a sixth Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu; audiences took to calling her “Ramulamma” after it.

Hindi films

K. Viswanath introduced her to Hindi cinema in 1989 with Eeshwar, opposite Anil Kapoor. Her other Hindi films include Muqaddar Ka Badshaah, Apradhi, Tejaswini and Gundagardi (1997).

Return to cinema

Her film appearances decreased from 1999 as politics took over, and Nayudamma (2006) was her last film for years. After a gap of 13 years she returned in Anil Ravipudi‘s Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020), with Mahesh Babu in the lead. She followed it in 2025 with Arjun Son of Vyjayanthi, playing a police officer alongside Nandamuri Kalyan Ram.

Politics

Vijayashanti joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1998 and became secretary of its women’s wing. In January 2005 she launched her own party, Talli Telangana, which she later merged into the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. She won the Medak Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and took an active part in the movement for a separate Telangana state. She has since moved between the Congress and the BJP, rejoining the Indian National Congress in November 2023, and on 13 March 2025 she was unanimously elected to the Telangana Legislative Council.

She married Moturi Venkata Srinivasa Prasad in 1988.

Sources: Wikipedia and Wikidata.