It’s hard to fathom if a reel life portrayal influences an actor’s real life traits, especially if the characters are activists, politicians, cops or lawyers. Vijayashanti played all these roles with elan in her career spanning over four decades in 175 films including Telugu (121), Tamil (39), Kannada (5), Malayalam (4) and Hindi (6). Called ‘Lady Amitabh Bachchan’ for garnering women-oriented action roles when heroines were mere glam dolls in hero-dominated films, Vijayashanti held her own with directors scripting stories for her and creating characters that celebrated righteousness and womanhood.
The revolutionary film ‘Osey Ramulamma’ catapulted her into a new fame level with the character of Ramulamma. To this day, her role as Ramulamma is etched in people’s memory. That film made her entry into Telangana electoral politics a bit easy.
