Those were the days: Dancing her way to stardom

AV Meiyappa Chettiar returned to Madras from Devakottai where he had gone during the World War years where he had managed to produce a couple of hit movies from a makeshift studio. 

The first movie he planned to shoot in the new Vadapalani studio was Vazhkai (life) and was on the lookout for a fresh face, an angelic-looking college girl with a mischief in her eyes. His story writer recommended a girl who could fit the bill. Luckily, she was dancing in the Parthasarathy Sabha that evening at Gokhale Hall in Madras George town. AVM went to the performance and was impressed. Though the girl was too young for the role, she was tall for her age (she was just 13). AVM must have actually worried that she was taller than the saucer-eyed hero TR Ramachandran. 

The girl was cheerful on stage and it was something more than her makeup that hid her turmoil. She had borrowed the dance costume and jewellery she was wearing because her jobless father could not afford one. She was actually going to the Good Shepherd School, thanks to movie mogul SS Vasan, who had offered to support her. (She had danced admirably at his daughter’s wedding reception) 

But, being a celebrity kid, the bigger trauma was there for all to know. Her mother Vasundara (post marriage) had been an actress too, playing the seductive heroine in Vasan’s Mangamma Sabatham. (Vyjayanthimala used to cycle from school to watch her mother on the sets and to play on the lawns of Gemini Studio). The two were perhaps one of the very few mother-daughter duos to play heroines in the same decade. 

Suddenly, her mother decided to marry another man and young Vyjayanthi was tugged by her parents fighting for her custody. 

She was dragged to court to state her preference of parent and since she was a minor, the judge made the agitated child sit next to him. There was a lot of publicity for Vasundara. Newspapers reported that Vyjayanthi in her perfect convent English said she fancied living with her father. 

The AVM establishment had to convince the orthodox family to let the teen act, given their bitter experience in letting a girl from the family act earlier. But with the financial security a film career would give, the family seems to have overcome their fears. Vazhkai seemed to be the perfect launch vehicle for her. 

Two of the greatest Carnatic singers, DK Pattammal and ML Vasanthakumari, sang playback for her in the movie. The film crew and the hero were very supportive of the newcomer. Since she would appear in her first scene driving a car, Vyjayanthi was taught to drive by the director himself on the deserted beach road. In one scene, when Vyjayanthi, disguised as a man, had to give a pat on the hero’s shoulder, the shy girl hesitated. The hero reassured her that he wore a thick coat and she was not actually touching a male. 

Vazhkai was a box office phenomenon. It completed 25 weeks of its theatrical run with no major stars. AVM was enthused to repeat the story in Telugu and Hindi as well with Vyjayanthi as the heroine in all versions. While her father taught her Telugu she had also learned Hindi at the Hindi Prachar Sabha to dub her own voice for her roles. 

Vyjayanthi acted with the biggest names in Hindi and Tamil cinema and while she played some dream roles like Sharat Chandra’s Chandramukhi ( Devdas ) and Kalki’s Kundavi ( Parthiban Kanavu ), she didn’t shy away from any role and even appeared in a swimsuit in Sangam . Gossip mills usually worked overtime whenever she was around. In one well-traded tattletale, Raj Kapoor’s wife was supposed to have moved to a hotel for months at a stretch to dissent her husband’s proximity to Vyjayanthi.

Vyjayanthi married in 1968 and didn’t act in movies thereafter. She, however, was involved in Bharathanatyam and also was an elected Member of Parliament from South Madras. One of her greatest achievements remains that she was the first south Indian actress to become a Bollywood star and paved a way for other south Indian actresses to foray into Bollywood.