Vyjayanthimala Quotes

The need of the hour is to get people to talk to each other and to clear the air. I don't approve of fusion in art, but I definitely approve of it in the field of politics.

There were no acting schools or workshops then. What came naturally to you, is all you had. But Bharata Natyam taught me everything.

As it is, being a South Indian I used to say my own lines and everybody marveled at it, and then to learn Bhojpuri... Dilipsaab was very helpful.

I poured my heart and soul into the role of Chandramukhi. In my view, hers was the greater character (compared with Paro's). One scene that will forever be etched in my memory is the one in which Devdas takes leave of Chandramukhi, saying that he hopes he will meet her again, 'if not in this lifetime, then in the next'.

We came from a conservative family, many of whom had never even gone to school. But I was sent to a convent and everyone was very proud that I was educated. So once while I was performing in Madras, a director from AVM studios spotted me. They were looking for a fresh face and they immediately wanted to cast me, and my grandmother grudgingly accepted.

Of course, there's also politics — "though far less so than before," admitted the three-time MP, who now is a member of the BJP.

But first I was made to learn music, because music and dance go together. You can sing, but you can’t dance without music...

I think I was born to dance. That’s what my grandmother told me. So it was always in my system.

aAs a creative artiste dedicated to a spiritual art form I was deeply pained by the communal violence in Gujarat.

That's because I simply carried on dancing, [she said]. It was my first love, and thanks to my taskmaster of a grandmother (Yadugiri Devi), I had never stopped my Bharata Natyam.

If Bharatanatyam helped my movies, I cannot say the same about films helping my Bharatanatyam.

I was cast as a college girl and that wasn’t really hard to play as I was very young then. I was treated as a child on the sets. When the movies finally hit the theatres, all the newspapers carried reviews that said, ‘What natural acting.'

I was cast as a college girl and that wasn’t really hard to play as I was very young then. I was treated as a child on the sets. When the movies finally hit the theatres, all the newspapers carried reviews that said, ‘What natural acting.

Sangam had many firsts. The first technicolour film, the first film to have two intervals — in a way I was a part of history.

Today’s dancers are not dignified. There’s a lot of talent but they are getting ample help. In our time you had to get the steps right, the words right and the movement right. Otherwise you had to start all over again. Today even if they miss a step it can be adjusted at the editing.