Photo: Dani Charles, Silverscreen Media Inc. (https://silverscreen.in) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Lakshmi represents a kind of versatility I find almost extinct: a leading actress who worked across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam cinema in nearly equal measure, then added Hindi films on top. Sustaining a career in four language industries means mastering four sets of dialogue, audiences, and working cultures, and she has done it for over five decades since her 1968 debut. The National Film Award for Best Actress confirms the craft, but what impresses me more is the ambition — she stepped behind the camera as a director too. To me she is a one-woman argument for Indian cinema's plurality.
Overview
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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Yaragudipati Venkata Mahalakshmi
- Name (Japanese)
- ラクシュミー
- Reading
- らくしゅみー
- Born
- December 13, 1952 (age 73)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Dragon
- Origin
- Chennai, Chennai district, India
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film actor / actor / film director
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- Nandi Award
- Filmfare Awards South
- National Film Award for Best Actress
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Film actor — see all → · Actor — see all → · More people from India →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-10
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.