Devayani

Devayani, born as Sushma Jayadev on June 22, 1974, is one of the leading television actresses in Tamil small screen now. She has acted in more than 75 films alongside stars like Vijay, Surya, Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan is the most versatile actor that Indi >> Read More... , etc. She is currently settled in Mumbai with her husband, Rajakumaran. She has won two Tamil Nadu state film awards for her brilliant portrayal of characters in the late 90’s movies: ‘Surya Vamsam’ in 1997 and ‘Kaadhal Kottai’ in 1996. She says her life changed after ‘Kaadhal Kottai’ opposite Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar is a prominent Tamil film actor, model >> Read More... . The movie also earned her a title ‘the homely heroine’. She has also played small cameos in hit movies like Panchathanthiram alongside Kamal Haasan and also pulling off comedy easily in ‘Thenali’ where she played opposite Jayaram. She also received many accolades for her lead roles in movies like Friends, Appu, Bharathi (for which she won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress), Aanandham, etc. 

She is known widely in almost every Tamil household and even the global Tamils for her title role in Kolangal in which she played a challenging role of being a brave, courageous and an upright woman carrying the whole serial on her shoulders. Kolangal ran over a thousand episodes, and soon she became a household name and was often recognized as Abi - the role she played in Kolangal. For this role, she has won several awards from different organizations. 
She received the coveted ‘Kalaimamani’ award from the Tamil Nadu government in the year 2010. She has produced a few films that her husband directs, a notable one being ‘Thirumathi Tamizh’ where she played an important role. Her brother, Nakul is also an actor in the Tamil film industry who plays hero in movies now and then. Nakul is quoted saying that he follows his sister’s footsteps and considers her a big inspiration.

Another Version of This Story...

Devayani was born in Maharashtra, Mumbai, to the family of Konkani. Devayani started her career from the Hindi film Koyal in which she played the outstanding role of Sushma, but the misfortune with this film is that it was canceled during the production stage. After that, she started doing acting in a Bengali film named Poncomi.  She did a lot of work in the Tamil films. Her earliest film was Kaadhal Kottai that was released in around 1990s.   
She appeared as heroine in more than 35 films since 1996 to 2000. In this period, her co-actress were also the top actors just like Kamal Haasan, Sarath Kumar, Vijay, Prashanth, Parthiban and many more.  Devayani also worked in the TV industry, and her role is outstanding in the teleserial of Kolangal and appeared in the role of Abinaya, that serial had more than 1500 episodes, so it was soap not a serial. 

Devayani Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)