From 1 January 1988 [a]to 5 December 2016, she was the 5th and longest-serving general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK),[4] a Dravidian party whose cadre revered her as their "Amma" (Mother) and "Puratchi Thalaivi" (Revolutionary leader).

[9] Jayalalithaa was born on 24 February 1948 to Jayaram and Vedavalli (Sandhya) in a Hindu Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family at Melukote, Pandavapura taluk, Mandya district, then in Mysore State (now Karnataka).

[24] Jayalalithaa held the housewarming ceremony of her residence Veda Nilayam (named after her beloved mother Vedavalli alias Sandhya) on 15 May 1972, early in the morning, followed by dinner and a Veena recital by classical musician Chitti babu in the evening.

Jayalalithaa accompanied her mother to a party related to the film and was spotted by Panthulu, who then decided to cast her opposite Kalyan Kumar in the Kannada movie Chinnada Gombe.

[45] Between 1965 and 1973, Jayalalithaa starred opposite M. G. Ramachandran in a number of successful films, including Aayirathil Oruvan, Kavalkaran, Adimai Penn, Engal Thangam, Kudiyirundha Koyil, Ragasiya Police 115 and Nam Naadu.

[58] She acted with Ravichandran in ten films—Gowri Kalyanam (1966), Kumari Penn (1966), Naan (1967), Magarasi (1967), Maadi Veettu Mappilai (1967), Panakkara Pillai (1968), Moondru Yezhuthu (1968), Andru Kanda Mugam (1968), Avalukku Aayiram Kangal and Baghdad Perazhagi (1974).

Adimai Penn, Kanni Thaai, and Kannan En Kadhalan had Ramachandran as the lead male hero but the story and the title was built around the character played by Jayalalithaa.

Similarly, Engerindo Vandhaal, Sumathi En Sundari, Paadhukaappu and Anbai Thedi had Sivaji Ganeshan as the male lead but the title and the story was built around her character.

[citation needed] She received the title "Nadippuku Ilakkium Vahuthavar" from the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi[65] and also won Tamil Nadu Cinema Fan Award for Best Actress for her 100th film Thirumangalyam in 1974.

Her period dramas include Ayirathil Oruvan, Neerum Neruppum, Mani Magudam, Adimai Penn, Ali Baba 40 Dongalu, Arasa Katalai, and Baghdad Perazhagi.

She acquired the reputation of being a multi-faceted actor equally comfortable in fantasy and mythological genres as well as in modern social dramas[69] and hence in 1969, in Tamil Conference, she was given the tag of "Kaveri Thandha Kalai Selvi".

An Australia-based journalist Brian Laul took over the mantle of Piousji ('Khaas Bhat'- The filmi gossip column) wrote an article specifying Jayalalithaa was trying for a comeback but was not being offered any roles.

Jayalalithaa chose to respond to him by writing a letter, in which she mentioned that she was not struggling to make any comeback and that she turned down the offer from producer Balaji to star in Billa (1980) alongside Rajinikanth.

Even the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the Rajya Sabha member Khushwant Singh came to witness her speech which was widely acclaimed for its clarity of diction and elegant prose.

[92] Jayalalithaa was one of the 16 special guests who were invited to participate the state dinner hosted by then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in honour of Erstwhile Yugoslavian President Veselin Djuranovic at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

[92] In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi days before the elections, her alliance with the Indian National Congress enabled her to ride the wave of sympathy that gave the coalition victory.

[125][126] On 20 January 1994, Mother Teresa called on Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai and lauded her welfare projects for girls, destitute women and the aged.

This was followed by numerous companies setting up factories here especially from automobiles sector which included Hyundai Motor, BMW, Daimler, Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Wright and Yamaha.

[116][131] The wedding event of her foster son Sudhakaran, who married a granddaughter of the Tamil film actor Shivaji Ganesan, was held on 7 September 1995 at Madras and was viewed on large screens by over 150,000 people.

Several Alliance party leaders such as L. K. Advani, Vaiko, S. Ramadoss, Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy and Subramanian Swamy participated it ahead of Lok Sabha election that year.

[145] Jayalalithaa was barred from standing as a candidate in the 2001 elections because she was found guilty of criminal offences, including allegedly obtaining property belonging to a state-operated agency called TANSI.

[149][150] Upon her acquittal, She contested a bye-poll to the Andipatti constituency, after the sitting MLA Thanga Tamil Selvan resigned for the seat, gave up his membership, which she won by a handsome margin in February 2002.

Tons of plywood, plaster of paris and paint were used to erect cut-outs of Jayalalitha, arches, several hundred papier-mache statues, elaborate facades of palaces and gateways.

Justice P Anbhazhagan delivered the judgment, and said that the evidence stated in the prosecution sheet, and that the sale deed of the prime land in Guindy had been carried out on 29 May 1992, in the unequivocal aim of cheating against the government.

Her last rites were performed on the evening of 6 December 2016 and she was buried at the northern end of the Marina Beach in Chennai in a sandalwood casket engraved with "Puratchi Thalaivi Selvi J Jayalalithaa", near the grave of her mentor M. G. Ramachandran at the MGR Memorial.

Faisal Saif completed work on major portions of a film titled Amma between 2014 and 2016, but was forced to shelve it following threats from members of Jayalalithaa's political party.

[359] Production on the series progressed quietly throughout late 2018, with Ramya Krishnan selected to play Jayalalithaa, and Indrajith and Vamsi Krishna portraying M. G. Ramchandran and Sobhan Babu respectively.

On her request, then famous cricket commentator and the general manager of Das prakash Group of Hotels P. Ananda Rao who had influence on TNCA, represented her case on his board meeting.

Her favourite authors were Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Sheldon, Georgette Heyer, Danielle Steel, Pearl S. Buck, James Hadley Chase and Somerset Maugham.

[378][382][383] She also read Shakespeare's plays, Danielle Steel's Malice,[384] Jung Chang's Wild Swans, Jean Plaidy's series on the Tudor dynasty, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Wayne Dyer's Wishes Fulfilled, Li Zhisui's The Private Life of Chairman Mao,[385] Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.