Lakshmi or Lakshmi Narayan is an Indian film actress who was born as Lakshmi Yaragudipati to
Yaragudipati Varada Rao
from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil actress, Rukmini who is also the daughter of actress, Nungambakkam Janaki. Lakshmi’s father is a notable actor and Telugu filmmaker who usually does films that deals with significant social issues.  Lakshmi was born on December 13, 1952 in Madras Presidency in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Â
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Lakshmi was only fifteen when she entered the film industry. She was first introduced in the Tamil film, Jeevanamsam in 1968 and later appeared in the Telugu film, Bandhavyalu. Then she went on acting in many Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada movies. She became popular after doing her very first Malayalam film, Chattakkari, where she played the lead role of the Anglo-Indian girl, Julie in 1974. This film got her the Best Actress Award in the Kerala State Film Award. Chattakkari is the first Malayalam film that runs constantly in Bangalore Theater for a span of 40 weeks. This film was also adapted in Hindi as Julie and Miss Julie Prema Katha in Telugu. In 1976, Lakshmi received the Best Actress Award in Filmfare Awards for her performance in the Hindi film, Julie. Prior to this, she also got the Most Outstanding Work of the Year in Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards in 1975 for the film, Julie. Lakshmi was known to be very versatile and one of her best performance was from the Telugu film, Panthulamma in 1978.Â
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After the super hit film Chattakkari, Lakshmi was starred in several megahit Malayalam films. She received the 1975 Filmfare Award for Best Malayalam Actress for her appearances in Chanalum (1975) and Mohiniyattam (1976). She started to act in various films together with some of the lead actors and South Indian stars, but her performance with the famous,
Anant Nag
in 1970 to 1980 that really hit the eyes of many audiences. They were considered as one of the greatest tandem in South Indian films. The two acted with a total of 25 films together.Â
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After the success of Julie, Lakshmi concentrates on South Indian films instead of doing Hindi films. Her performance in Tamil film, Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal as Ganga gave her the Best Actress Award in the National Film Award in 1977. Lakshmi was one of the South Indian actresses to win that award for a Tamil movie. Her career as a leading lady ended in 1980’s and started doing supporting roles of a mother and later appeared as a grandmother. In 1998, she was Krishnaveny Paathy, the grandmother of Madhumitha (played by Aishwarya Rai) in the Tamil romantic comedy film, Jeans and as the grandmother of Anjali (played by Kareena Kapoor) in 2004’s Hindi film, Hulchul.Â
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Lakshmi has acted in over 400 films and she also got involved in the world of politics. She took a hiatus from acting and became a host of talk shows like Achamillai, Achamillai. And because of her fluency in South Indian languages, she hosted talk shows in different language like the Kannada’s Du Kathe Alla Jeevana and Neena? Naana? on Survana channel and Tamil’s
Kathai Alla Nijam
on Vijay TV.  Lakshmi also try his hand in directing the Kannada film, Makkala Sainya with K. Balachander’s supervision. She was also one of the juries in the Malayalam reality show, Champions which was aired on Surya TV.Â
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Lakshmi was married three times. First is with the Bhaskar in year 1969, a Malayali who works in an insurance business. They had an arranged marriage when Lakshmi was 17 years old and their daughter is South Indian actress, Aishwarya. Then in 1975, she got married again to Indian actor and producer,
Mohan Sharma
. He was Lakshmi’s co-star in the Malayalam film, Chattakari, but they had a divorced in late 1980’s. Lastly, she got married to actor, K.S. Sivachandran in 1989.Â
Lakshmi received many awards for her good performances as an actress. She said that she will continue to act until her last breath. She was last seen in the film Gulmohar with her political rival and long time screen partner, Anant Nag.
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Another version of this bio...
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Lakshmi is the popular south Indian actress, who is popular for her extraordinary performances and fluency in all the languages. Laxmi is born to Y.V.Rao and Rukhmini in the year 1952. Her mother Rukhmini was also an actress. She made her debut in the film industry at the young age of 15. Srivalli was her first film in Tamil, in which she acted as Valli. It was released in 1961. Jeevanamsam, a Tamil movie that was released in the year 1968, was her debut movie as a heroine. She made her Kannada movie debut in the same year with Rajkumar. After 6 years she made her Malayalam debut through Chattakkari, which was the hit film all over India. This movie awarded her with the Kerala state award for the best actress.
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She also acted in the remade version of Chattakkari in Hindi and Telugu. The Hindi version Julie brought her the Bengal Film Journalists Association Award for the best performance of the year. She has acted with almost all the top heroes of in the Indian cinema industry like
Sivaji Ganesan
, MGR, Rajini Kanth, Kamal Hassan, Mamooty, Mohan Lal,
Prem Nazir
, Rajkumar,
Anil Kapoor
and many more. She is also the proud recipient of the National Award for the best actress for the film Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal, in 1977. After some years, she started to act in the supporting roles like mother, sister in law, sister and grandmother for the top stars in the Indian cinema. She married Bhaskar in 1969 and got a daughter Aishwarya, who is also an actress. Laxmi divorced Bhaskar and married Mohan Sharma in 1975 and that too ended up in a divorce. Then she got married with actor cum director Sivachandran in 1989 and settled with him. She has adopted a daughter named Samyuktha in the year 2000.
Lakshmi Narayan Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)