Vijayashanti Biography

This multi-faceted persona has shined in an array of roles ranging from glamour, action, spiritual, a tough cop to some emotional portrayals. She had acted in total seven languages and in more than 186 movies. Vijayashanti can be tagged as 'The Lady Superstar' of South Indian film industry. She is married to a real estate businessman Srinivas Prasad.

Born in Chennai on 24th June, 1964, Vijayashanti was originally born as 'Shanti' and adopted the screen name 'Vijayashanti'. Beginning her acting career in 1980, she established herself as a leading actress in Tamil and Telugu film industry. 'Kallukkul Eeram' was her debut film in Tamil, whereas 'Kilaadi Krishnudu' was the film, with which she stepped in Telugu cinema. Vijayashanti essayed the role of an antagonist in the Tamil flick 'Manna' alongside superstar Rajinikanth. In the year 1992, one of her film titled 'Mondi Mogudu Penki Pellum' achieved immense success proving a super hit flick. Vijayashanti was seen in a bold avatar in this film. Soon, she became a glamour queen of the Telugu film industry with the films like 'Challenge', 'Pasivadi pranam', 'Agni Parvatam', 'Gang Leader', 'Athaku', etc

From the film 'Neti Bharatham', Vijayashanti commenced stepping in the shoes of action lady in the year 1983. 'Pratighatana' was the movie in which she was again seen performing the similar kind of action role. For this, for the first time she received Nandi award. Also some State awards are in the account of Vijayashanti for her movies - 'Aruna Kiranam', 'Repati Pourulu', 'Bharatha Nari' and 'Vande Mataram'. The blockbuster film 'Karthavyam', which witnessed her playing a tough cop, made her achieve National Film Award from Indian government. For the same, she even attained an award for the best Actress from Andhra Pradesh state. In the year 1990, A Telugu film titled 'Karthavyam' featuring Vijayashanti was remade in its Hindi version by the name 'Tejasvini'. She enacted a role of a tough cop in this movie.

Vijayashanti joined Bharatiya Janata Party in the year 1999. Later, she became the secretary of Bharatiya Mahila Morcha, which is BJP's women wing. Since 1999, she focused more on her political career and minimized her appearances in the films.