Jaya Prada

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Jaya Prada was born as Lalita Rani in Rajahmundry a quaint city in Andhra Pradesh. Her father Krishna Rao as a Telegu film financier and her mother Neelaveni was a home maker. As a kid Lalita (Jaya Prada) attended a Telegu medium school in Rajahmundry and was enrolled for dance and music classes at a very young age. She was initiated to dancing at an early age by her mother. At the age of 14 she had given her first dance performance on the stage . A Teleu Director offered her a ten minute dance sequence in a film named Bhoomi Kosam. She was initially hesitant to accept the dancing role but her family encouraged her to accept it and she was paid only Rs. 10 for her role in this film. The rushes for the three minute of her role in the film were shown to major production houses in the Telegu Film Industry from then on film makers offered her roles in quality films and she accepted them and from then on her life took a turn to the Telegu Film Industry.

The dance performance by Jaya Prada in her first film helped her gain popularity to enter the Film Industry. She starred in a number of South Indian Films and all of them did very well at the Box Office and were hit films. She has acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Telegu and Kannada films before she started signing for the Hindi Films and her Bollywood entry was a major success everywhere. She went on to act with some of the top actors of her time. On her personal life, Jaya Prada married producer Srikant Nahata in 1986 . Nahata was a married man with three children before she tied the knot with him.. He has not divorced his first wife before he married Jaya Prada due to which their marriage created a lot of controversy. Jaya Prada and Srikant Nahata have no children together .

Jaya Prada became a popular and famous star in 1976 with some of the major hits. Her first major hit was Director K. Balachander’s black and white film called Anthuleni Katha in 1976 which showcased her dramatic skills. Then followed her film in colour Siri Siri Muvva again in 1976 in which she played a mute with excellent dancing skills . Her role in the big budget mythological film Seetha Kalyanam confirmed her versatility in the year 1977. She has starred in the film Adavi Ramudu which broke the Box Office Records and she thereafter established herself permanently with a Star Status in the Telegu films. Top film makers were casting her and repeating her in their films. Film maker Vijay introduced her to Kannada cinema and in 1977 she gave a super hit film Sanadi Appanna starring with Kannada matinee Idol Raj Kumar. The film is also popular for the Ustad Bismillah Khan’s shenai rendition. Jaya Prada acted in many more films with Raj Kumar which did well and that cemented her further to be a known actress getting popular with every new film she signed till 2000. In 1979, K. Balachander repeated her in a Tamil film Ninaithale Inikkum opposite to Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth in which she played a terminally ill patient.. She continued to act in Telegu films opposite to the actors as NTR, ANR, Krishna Sobhan Babu and in the 70’s and 80’s she also worked with K. Viswanath who made Siri Siri Muvva in Hindi with ‘Sargam’ introducing Jaya Prada to Bollywood and Hindi Cinema and in this film in 1979 she starred with Rishi Kapoor and she earned her first nomination for the Best Actress by FilmFare Award for this film but she couldn’t achieve too much of success as she had a drawback of not being able to speak Hindi. In 1980’s she starred in the critically acclaimed Tamil film 47 Natkal for filmmaker K.Balachander in which she acted with Chiranjeevi who plays a villan’s role. She thereafter took Hindi speaking lessons and mastered the spoken Hindi language. Director K. Viswanath re launched the film Kaamchor in Hindi in wihich she has spoken fluent Hindi and for the first time . She could consistently work in Hindi films therafter and also won her first nominations for Best Actress for playing Amitabh Bachchan’s girl friend in the film Sharabi. As the Kotha Dancer. Her film with Kamal Hassan , Sangamam directed by K. Viswanath proved to be a milestone in her life and a stepping stone in her career towards her growth that helped her win a lot of accolades including the Filmfare Award for the Best Actress Telegu in 1983. Jaya Prada has made a successful lead in pair with some of the best and top actors of the Hindi Cinema, not just with Amitabh Bachchan, but also with Jeetendra and Sridevi in their super hit hindi film ‘ Tohfa’ in 1984 which was a remake of the film Devatha in 1982. In 1985 she acted in the Malayalam film . Director Satyajit Ray describes Jaya Prada as one of the most prettiest and charming woman in the world. Although she has acted in Bengali films she has never worked for Satyjit Ray. From 1990’ she did fewer unknown films with actors like Aditya Pancholi and then on decided to join politics at the age of 32 . She did a few more films in Malayalam and in 2002 she stepped into the Marathi film industry by being a guest in the movie, ‘Aadhar’ Thus she completed acting in eight different languages and overall she has completed 300 films during a span of 30 years in a film career. She stared playing matured roles after 2004. In 2012 she acted in the Kannada film Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna that was a historical film and she completed 100 days at the Box Office. She also owns the Jaya Prada Theater in Chennai