Vyjayanthimala Quotes

I always cribbed about having such a long name and my grandmother would say that nobody else will be called ‘Vyjayanthimala'.

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.

I was surrounded by dance, music and religious chants, so it was that kind of a mood. Our family was very culturally-minded, especially my grandmother. She was also quite the disciplinarian. She made sure I practiced daily for hours.

There were so many different characters that I have played. Radha in Sangam was a very sophisticated woman and the setting was very refined, while in Dhanno in Gunga Jumna was rustic, a village belle. Even the language was different.

My first colour sequence was in what was then called ‘Geva Colour’ for the dream sequence in Nagin.

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

And when I joined politics people told me it wasn’t the same as the Independence era, so you can imagine how it has become now. It’s such a sad thing. Instead of taking to the country to a higher level we are going downwards.

I don’t know if I am wrong, but singing slightly out of sur is also in vogue these days. And these pelvic movements and gestures are too much for me.

My dances were not like today’s, which have progressed with an Indian and Western combination or fusion which has become repetitive. You cannot tell one dance from the other. Everyone wants to be Michael Jackson. But I like some of them like that ‘Radha kaise na jale’ from Lagaan. I like classical stuff.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.