Vyjayanthimala-The Legend Of Indian Cinema

Vyjayanthimala Bali was born on August 13, 1936, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Vyjayanthimala is a major Indian actress of the 1950s and '60s, who won a large number of awards for her acting and classical dancing achievements. Following her cinema career, she entered Indian politics, and became a Member of Parliament.

At the age of 5, Vyjayanthimala got the rare chance of performing a dance before the Pope. At age 15, she got a break in AVM Productions Tamil movie, Vazhkai, which was produced by M. V. Raman, a family friend. The movie was a success, and was remade in Hindi as Bahaar (1951). She acted in a few more Tamil movies before moving on to a highly successful career in Hindi movies. Her dance competition with Padmini in the Tamil film, Vanjikottai Vaaliban, received much acclaim.

Vyjayanthimala got her initial Hindi movie roles in Ladki and Nagin (1954). Hemant Kumar's music and her dance accompanying the song, Man Dole, Mera tan dole, in Nagin made the movie an enormous success, and the movie's success helped Vyjayanthimala break out of B grade movies. Bimal Roy cast her as Chandramukhi opposite Dilip Kumar in the critically acclaimed Devdas. The first two of those four roles earned her Filmfare Best Actress Awards. also received a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for portraying in Sadhana a tawaif (a courtesan) who eventually got rehabilitated in the society. She costarred with Raj Kapoor in Sangam which earned her the Filmfare Best Actress Award.

Vyjayanthimala starred in the 1966 historical epic, Amrapali, which was based on the life of the legendary Buddhist courtesan Amrapali. The movie was not a commercial success, and the commercial failure much disappointed her as she considered it the magnum opus of her career. Later, she said that she would like to see a remake of that movie, with Madhuri Dixit playing her role.[2]

She costarred with Dev Anand in Jewel Thief, with Rajendra Kumar in Suraj, with Shammi Kapoor in Prince, and with Kishore Kumar in his inane yet zany comedies,including the blockbuster New Delhi. In 2007, she published her autobiography, titled Bonding, with Jyoti Sabarwal as co-writer.


Vyjayanthimala's Tamil movies included Vanjikottai Valiban, Irumbuthirai, Then Nilavu, Vaazhkai, Penn, Parthiban Kanavu (old), and Baghdad Thirudan. The actress also received Padma Shri Award in 1968. Vyjayanthimala also got the Legend of Indian Cinema Award at Atlantic City (United States) in 2004. In the year 2005 she got the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bollywood Movie Awards.