Jaya Prada@52: a birthday Tohfa

Having starred in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi films, veteran actress and politician Jaya Prada has a lot to look forward to as she eyes a third term in the Lok Sabha, this time, from Bijnore, as she turns 52.

On her birthday today, we take you to a pictorial journey through her life.

Jaya Prada, real name Lalita Rani, was born on April 3, 1962 in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh to a Telugu film financier. She enrolled in dance and music classes at an early age.

Her movie career started in a rather interesting way when at 14, she performed a dance number in her school. A director sitting in the audience offered her a three minute dance sequence in Telugu film Bhoomi Kosam.

The dance sequence led to starring roles and she found fame in 1976 in K Balachander's Anthuleni Katha, K Vishwanath's Siri Siri Muvva, and in mythological hit Seetha Kalyanam in which she played the title role of Sita.

In 1977, she featured in the record-breaking Adavi Ramudu opposite superstar N T Rama Rao.

Jayaprada's first Bollywood film was 1979's Sargam, a remake of her own 1976 movie Siri Siri Muvva. The movie was a hit and fetched Jaya Prada a Filmfare Best Actress nomination. However, her lack of Hindi skills meant Jaya Prada was unable to cash in on her early success at first.

Three years and Hindi lessons later, Jaya Prada appeared in director K Vishwanath's hit film Kaamchor (1982), opposite Rakesh Roshan. Now fluent in Hindi, a string of films followed.

Among her roles were two that were nominated for Filmfare Best Actress again - Sharaabi (1984) opposite Amitabh Bachchan and K Vishwanath's Sanjog (1985), in which she played the double role of a mentally ill mother and her grown up daughter.

Jaya Prada continued to star in South movies like K Vishwanath's Sagara Sangamam (1983) which fetched her a Telugu Filmfare Award for Best Actress. Audiences adored her and the legendary director Satyajit Ray described her as 'one of the prettiest women in the world.'

Jaya's hit partnership with actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jeetendra resulted in movies such as Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswati (1988) and Aulad (1987).

She conducted an infamous feud with rival Sridevi, with whom she appeared in films like the Telugu film Devata (1982) and its Hindi remake Tohfa (1984). Film lore has it that while shooting 1984 film Maqsad, actors Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra locked the two heroines into a make up room in the hope that it would force a thaw in their icy relations. Two hours later, they unlocked the door to find Sridevi and Jaya Prada sitting at opposite ends in stony silence.

Jaya Prada also starred in Bengali, Marathi and other regional cinema. She started out in Marathi with a guest role in the movie Aadhaar in 2002. She has acted in 300 films during a 30-year movie career in seven languages. She also owns the Jaya Prada Theatre in Chennai.

Jaya Prada's political career blossomed when she joined former co-star N T Rama Rao's Telugu Desam Party in 1994. When NTR's son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu broke away to form his own faction in 1995, Jaya Prada went with him. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1996.

She then left the Telugu Desam Party for the Samajwadi Party, winning the 2004 general elections from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

Jaya Prada's journey with the Samajwadi Party has been rocky, to say the least. In 2009, She accused senior party leader Azam Khan of distributing nude pictures of her. In 2010, she was expelled from the party for supporting former Samajwadi general secretary Amar Singh against party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Just weeks ago, Jaya Prada was reported to have joined Ajit Singh's Rashtria Lok Dal and will contest the elections coming up from Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh.

In 1986, Jaya Prada controversially married producer Srikant Nahata. Mr already-married Nahata, father of three children, did not divorce his first wife before marrying Jaya. Jaya Prada and her new husband separated some years later.

The actress-politician also infrequently makes film appearances. In 2007, she had a role in former co-star Kamal Haasan's Dasavatharam. She was last seen in Kangana Ranaut's Rajjo in 2013.

We wish Jaya Prada a very happy birthday and all the best for her political innings.