Jaya Prada

Jaya Prada was born as Lalita Rani in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. Her father, Krishna Rao, was a Telugu film financier. Her mother, Neelaveni, was a home-maker. The young Lalitha attended a Telugu medium school in Rajahmundry and was also enrolled in dance and music classes at an early age.

When Jaya Prada was a teenager, she performed a dance at her school's annual function. A film director in the audience offered her a three-minute dance number in the Telugu film Bhoomi Kosam. She was hesitant, but her family encouraged her to accept it. She was paid only 10 rupees for her work in the film, but the rushes of those three minutes of film were shown to the major figures of the Telugu film industry. Major filmmakers offered her starring roles in quality films, and she accepted them. She became a huge star in 1976 with major hit films. Director K. Balachander's black-and-white film Anthuleni Katha (1976) showcased her dramatic skills; K. Viswanath's color film Siri Siri Muvva (1976)[10] showed her playing a mute girl with excellent dancing skills; and her title role as Sita in the big-budget mythological film Seetha Kalyanam confirmed her versatility. In 1977, she starred in Adavi Ramudu, which broke box office records and which permanently cemented her star status.[11] The song "Aaresukoboyi Paresukunnanu" performed by Prada and co-star N.T. Rama Rao became a mass hit. Important filmmakers were casting her and repeating her in their films. Filmmaker Vijay introduced her to Kannada cinema in his 1977 super-hit movie Sanaadi Appanna alongside Kannada matinee idol Raj Kumar. The movie is also known to be the only movie to feature shehnai rendition by Ustad Bismillah Khan. Jaya Prada repeated her successful pairing with Rajkumar in films such as Huliya Haalina Mevu (1979), Kaviratna Kalidasa (1983) and Shabdavedhi (2000).

In 1979, K. Balachander repeated her in the Tamil film Ninaithale Inikkum opposite Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth in which she played a terminally-ill patient. She continued to act in more films in Telugu opposite actors such NTR, ANR, Krishna, Krishnam Raju and Sobhan Babu throughout the 70s and 80s. She acted in highest number of films with Krishna like Ooriki monagadu, Simhasanam (1986 film), Mundadugu, Bhale krishnudu, Sri Rajeshwari vilas coffee club, Prajarajyam. K. Viswanath remade Siri Siri Muvva (1976) in Hindi as Sargam, introducing Jayaprada to Bollywood in 1979. The film was successful and she became a star there as well. She earned her first Filmfare nomination as Best Actress but couldn't capitalize on her success since she couldn't speak Hindi.[12]

Jaya Prada at the launch of T P Aggarwal's trade magazine 'Blockbuster'

In 1986, she married producer Srikanth Nahata, who was already married to Chandra and had 3 children. This marriage stirred a lot of controversy, especially since Nahata did not divorce his wife and had children with his first wife after marrying Jaya Prada.[19] Jaya Prada and Srikanth have no children together. Jaya Prada went on to adopt her sister's son and raise him as her own.

Jaya Prada joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1994 at the invitation of its founder N. T. Rama Rao, on the eve of the assembly elections, and rose quickly through the ranks. At that time there was speculation that she would run for election, but she preferred not to make her electoral debut, although she was offered a seat by Rao.

She campaigned in several constituencies in 1994.[20] When Rao became the Chief minister in 1994, he appointed one of his sons-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu as the Revenue Minister. Soon after the formation of the government, Rao's health started deteriorating, and in response to the growing influence of his wife, Lakshmi Parvati, on the political decisions of NTR, Chandrababu Naidu convinced a majority of the TDP MLAs to elect him as the chief minister. Since most of the legislators had gone over to his side, the Anti Defection Law did not apply and the Telugu Desam Party label passed on to the Chandrababu Naidu faction. During this period, Prada too joined the Chandrababu Naidu faction of the party. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha representing Andhra Pradesh in 1996. She also held the post of Telugu Mahila President.

Following differences with party Supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu, she left the TDP to join Samajwadi Party. She contested from Rampur parliamentary Constituency in UP during the 2004 General election and got elected with a margin of more than 85000 votes. During her campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, she was issued a notice by the Election Commission for violating the code of conduct by distributing bindis to women in Rampur's Swar locality.[21] On 11 May 2009, Jaya Prada alleged that senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was distributing nude pictures of her.[22] She was re-elected with a margin of more than 30,000 votes.[23]

After she came out in open support of the former General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party, Amar Singh, Prada was expelled from the party on 2 February 2010 for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities and damaging the party's secular image.[24] Amar Singh, along with Jaya Prada floated his own political party, Rashtriya Lok Manch, in 2011, and fielded candidates in 360 of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2012 assembly polls. However, his party did not win a single seat in these elections. Later she, along with Amar Singh joined the RLD on 10 March 2014[25] and after that she got the ticket to contest from the Bijnor seat in the 2014 general elections.[26][27] She, however, lost the election.[28][29]

She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of National General Secretary Bhupender Yadav on 26 March 2019.[30]

Jaya Prada made her debut to the small screen with Local TV's show Jayapradam, where she was the host of the show and interviewed many of the celebrated actors and technicians including Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi, K. Viswanath, ANR, Ram Gopal Varma and many others. The show made her closer to the Telugu audience again. In 2018, she acted in her first daily soap Perfect Pati telecasted in AndTV. She played an endearing mother in law Rajeshwari Rathore. [31][32] [33]

she was given Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (South) in 2007.[34]

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Nandi Awards

• Nandi Award for Best Actress – Anthuleni Katha (1976)

Filmfare Awards South

• Special Award - Siri Siri Muvva & Anthuleni Katha (1976) [36]
• Best Actress – Telugu – Saagara Sangamam (1983)
• Lifetime Achievement Award – South (2007)[37]

Filmfare Awards

• Nominated - Best Actress - Sargam (1979)
• Nominated - Best Actress - Sharaabi (1984)
• Nominated - Best Actress - Sanjog (1985)

Filmfare Awards South

• Nominated - Best Actress - Anthuleni Katha (1976)
• Nominated - Best Actress - Adavi Ramudu (1977)
• Nominated - Best Actress - Pranayam (2011)
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna

(2012)

Other awards

• Kalashree award
• Kala Saraswati Award
• Kinnera Savitri Award
• Rajiv Gandhi Award
• Nargis Dutt Gold Medal
• Shakuntala Kala Rathnam Award
• Uttam Kumar Award[38]
• ANR Achievement Award (2008)[39]
• Venus of Indian Cinema Award from TSR TV9 Film Awards (2011)[40]
• Nana Film Award for Best Actress – Pranayam
• Ujala Asianet Film Awards 2012 – Special Jury Award for Pranayam
• Amrita Film Awards 2012 – Best Actress Award for Pranayam
• Mathrubhumi Kalyan Silks film awards 2012 – Best Character Actress Award for Pranayam
• Kerala Film Producers Association – Surya TV Film Awards 2012 – Outstanding Performance Award for Pranayam
• Asiavision Movie Awards 2011 – Outstanding Performance Award for Pranayam

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jaya Prada.

• Jaya Prada on IMDb