Janaki Ramachandran

V.N.Janaki or more noteworthily known as Janaki Ramachandran was a renowned Indian Tamil actress and also a politician. Born on the November of 30th, 1923, to Rajagopalan Iyer and Narayani Amma at Vaikom in the state of Kerala, little did the country know that the newly born damsel would go on to become the Chief Minister of a state some day. Her first marriage was in 1939 to Ganapathy Bhatt, at the tender age of 16, with whom she bore a son named Surendran.

But in 1963, she went on to marry M.G.Ramachandran or more popular as MGR among his supporters and the people of Chennai. MGR was an actor, producer, and politician and thrice consecutively elected as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He was also the first film actor to become the Chief Minister of a state in India. Janaki entered the movie fray in the late 1940s wherein she went on to act in roughly 25-30 movies. Velaikarrai, Rajamukhthi, Aiyiram Thalaivangiya Apoorva Chintamani were some of her noteworthy films.

She was also argued to be more talented than her iconic husband and also has been known to earn almost twice the income, from a fewer number of movies, compared to her husband.In 1987, soon after the death of her husband, who was then the leader of Tamil Nadu’s AIADMK political party, she was deemed to take over as the chief of party. She was ascended into the Chief Ministers post immediately which made her the first woman CM of Tamil Nadu.

However the government only lasted for twenty-four days, and her party suffered a heavy defeat in the following elections. She resigned from the party quit politics after that. Also known for her humongous philanthropy, Janaki donated a vast majority to various charities, relief funds and also setting up institutes for people who are differently abled.