Being born in 1957, Jayachitra hails from Andhra Pradesh. She entered the film industry when she was 10 years old; she acted in the Telugu film Bhakta Potana. A Telugu director screen tested her during her teens, but found that, she was very young. All the same the director recommended her to another director K.S. Gopalakrishnan, who tapped her talent and hence she acted in the Tamil film “Korathi Magan”. The director was impressed by her method of delivering her dialogues. Here, then he made her act in three of his films and christened her Jayachitra (her original name is Lakshmi).
Jayachitra had acted with legends including
Sivaji Ganesan
and M G Ramachandran. She was the choice for films of great directors including K Balachander. Also, she shared screen space with
Kamal Haasan
in the film “Ilamai Oonjaladugirathu”. She played the same role in the Telugu version too.
Jayachitra is a spontaneous actress and most of her films in Tamil were with Kamal Haasan. Her boldness and spontaneity was her forte and she acted in Tamil and Telugu films. She also starred in some Kannada and Malayalam films. Some of her memorable films include "
Ponnukku Thanga Manasu
", "Kalyanamam Kalyanam", "Sathyam" and "Vandikaran Magan”. She did the role of cinema fanatic in the Tamil film “Cinema Paithiyam” which is the remake of the Hindi film “
Guddi
”. She also excelled in the Telugu film “
Kalpana
”; this film is the remake of Hindi film “
Anamika
”. As this Telugu film became a hit she acted in many films with the lead actor of the film Murali Mohan.
Jayachitra concentrated in her family life after tying the knot with an industrialist Ganesh. She is blessed with a son Amresh. During 2010 she directed a film “Naane Ennul Illai” wherein her son is the hero. As a matured artiste Jayachitra acted as a character artiste. Then she focused on Television after being satisfied with 200 films. She was successful in the small screen since the serial “
Sumangali
” which she directed and produced became a hit. She was the unanimous choice of TV Serial Producers Guild of South India’s action committee. Later she entered politics wherein she is a member of the Congress Party. Jayachitra has many awards to her credit.