Potpourri of titbits about cinema - K. R. Vijaya

K. R. Vijaya, the veteran artiste and beauty queen of yesteryears was awarded the title ‘Punnakai arasi’ at a function held in Trichi. The title had been awarded to a lady who was the apt choice. She swept filmgoers off their feet with her bewitching smile. I was lucky enough to get occasions to meet her at her residence on Raman Street in T. Nagar, Chennai. I interviewed her on many occasions for magazines, I had been to her house for inviting her to functions and also had taken people to her who needed her help to enter cinema. She remembers each and every individual that she meets in her life. She had given interviews sitting near the beautiful swimming pool in her palatial house.

How Vijaya entered the field?

“My father Ramachandran belonged to Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh while my mother Kalyani belonged to Trichur in Kerala. Theirs was a love marriage. My father was a retired military officer. After he left military, he was dealing in jewelry in Chitoor. But he incurred heavy loss in the business and took us to Pazhani. There, he tried his hands at various things. When I was ten, I danced in a drama staged at the Amman temple during a festival. Subsequently, my father put me at the drama troupe of K. P. Thangamani. I travelled to many places with the troupe for staging plays. I got the opportunity to do a minor role in the play staged at an exhibition in Pazhani by actor S. M. Kumaresan, who had acted in ‘Abhimanyu’, a Jupiter Pictures production. Thereupon, our family shifted to Chennai. I joined the drama troupe of the popular writer ‘Viruthai’ Ramasamy. During this period, I made my bow in cinema with the film ‘Magale un samathu’, produced by P. A. Kumar. During the shooting, the then popular actor M. R. Radha asked me for my name. I told him my given name ‘Deiyvanayaki’. He immediately rejected the name and suggested the name Vijaya. My father, who happened to be there, immediately agreed to change my name to Vijaya. This is how I entered cinema,” Vijaya told me.

‘Vijaya’s father worked hard to get opportunities for her, meeting producers and other related staff. Vijaya was acting in minor roles in films like ‘Muthu mandapam’ and ‘Vilakktriyaval’. And, she added to her earning by dancing at functions and festivals. During one of those programs, she was spotted by Gemini Ganesan. At that time, director K. S. Gopalakrishnan was looking for a new face for his film ‘Karpagam’. Thanks to Gemini Ganesan who recommended Vijaya for that role, Gopalakrishnan got a talented artiste. Not only Gopalakrishnan, the Tamil cinema too!