Jayamala

Jayamala (born 28 February 1955)[1] is an Indian actress and politician. She served as the Minister for Women and Child Development and Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens in the Government of Karnataka, by virtue of being a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council.[2] She served as the female president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce between 2008 and 2010.[3][4] Her popular Kannada films include Premada Kanike, Shankar Guru, Antha and Chandi Chamundi among several others. She has produced and acted in the award-winning Thaayi Saheba.

Jayamala was born to a Tulu speaking family in Mangalore. Her father G. Omaiah was an agriculturist and mother Kamalamma, a homemaker. She has six sisters and a brother. They moved to Chikmagalur in 1963 after being displaced due to the harbour work in Panambur.[5]

She was first married to Kannada Film actor Tiger Prabhakar. and the couple has a daughter Soundarya, a popular actress in her own right. After her divorce [6][7] she married cinematographer H. M. Ramachandra.[5][8]

Jayamala has acted in several movies mainly in Kannada. Jayamala was the most glamorous heroine of Kannada cinema during the early 1980s. She started her career as a Rajkumar heroine and after a string of successful movies with him went on to star opposite all the top heroes of Sandalwood,[9] With Anant Nag, she has acted in romantic movies as Janma Janmada Anubandha and Premave Baalina Belaku. With Vishnuvardhan, she starred in multi-starrer pot-boilers like Hanthakana Sanchu, Naga Kala Bhairava and Sididedda Sahodara. Her pairing with Ambareesh, started with the cult classic Antha where she played the tragic role of a cabaret dancer who is his sister and then went on to become his heroine in several movies like Ajith, Prema Matsara and Khadeema Kallaru. Her pairing with Shankar Nag in many movies also proved successful, including the heroine-oriented Chandi Chamundi that made her a household name as an action heroine.