The Biography

Vedhavalli, better known as Sandhya (1924 – 1 November 1971) was a South Indian film actress, who appeared in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films. She adopted the screen name Sandhya for her acting career and was known for portraying character roles, often as the heroine’s sister or mother. Her younger sister, Vidyavathi, was also an actress. She was the mother of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa. She acted in the Malaikkallan (1954), which starred M. G. Ramachandran and was written by M. Karunanidhi. She also acted in and paired with N. T. Rama Rao in Mayabazar (1957), with Kalyan Kumar and Sivaji Ganesan in a few films like Bale Pandiya (1962).