Lakshmi (actress)

Yaragudipati Venkata Mahalakshmi (born 13 December 1952), known professionally as Lakshmi, is an Indian actress known for her works primarily in all 4 Southern Indian language film industries (distributing her acting career across all four languages almost equally). She has also acted in some Hindi films. She made her debut as actress with the 1968 Tamil film Jeevanaamsam. She debuted in full-fledged lead role in the same year with the Kannada film Goa Dalli CID 999. She also made her debut in Telugu in the same year with the film Bandhavyalu.

In 1974, her debut Malayalam film, Chattakari went on to become a blockbuster throughout India. She has acted in over 650 films as confirmed in the popular Kannada TV Show Weekend With Ramesh on Zee Kannada channel. Her performance in Mithunam (2012) is regarded as one of the 100 Greatest Performances of the Decade by Film Companion. Lakshmi then went on to appear in a number of commercially successful films in various languages without a hesitation or diction. She dubs her voice for all of her movies, irrespective of the language and remains one of the very few critically acclaimed stars to achieve this stage.

In a career spanning more than five decades she has won one National Film Award for Best Actress, nine Filmfare Awards South, One Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress, Nandi Awards, Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for the movie Hoovu Hannu, the Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards and various other state awards.

Lakshmi made her Bollywood debut in 1975, with the woman-centric Julie, the remake of Malayalam film Chattakkari. After appearing as a lead actress for more than a decade, she switched over to character roles. She is the only actress who has won the Filmfare Awards South in all four south languages.