Thiruvaiyaru Panchapakesa Sastri Rajalakshmi (11 November 1911-1964) was the first Tamil film Heroine

Heroine (film)

Heroine is an upcoming Indian film co - written and directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. The film revolves around the life of a once successful film actress Mahi Khanna, whose career is on the decline...

, first Tamil female film director and film producer.

Early life

Rajalakshmi was born in 11 November 1911 in the town of Thiruvaiyaru

Thiruvaiyaru

-External links:**...

 in the then Tanjore district of the Madras Presidency

Madras Presidency

The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...

 and was married off at the age of eleven.Later on,she got interest towards Acting and she joined in a drama troop and started her profession.Since she went to act in cinema,her Husbands family adorned her.Later on,Rajalakshmi started to cherish in Dtage plays and started directing movies in her own.She owned a Cine talkie production.At the age of 20, Rajalakshmi fell in love and married T. V. Sundaram and in a couple of years ,Rajalakshmi gave birth to a girl Child named Kamala.Inmidst, Rajalakshmi's neighbour gave birth to a child and since the born child was a Girl child,they attempted to kill the child,T.P.Rajalakshmi opposed it strongly and she took the Girl child from her parents and Rajalakshmi brought her up and enlightened the Girl's life by educating and conducting the marriage to the adopted girl named Malliga.

In 1938, Rajalakshmi directed her first feature film Miss Kamala

Miss Kamala

Miss Kamala was a 1938 Tamil-language film directed by T. P. Rajalakshmi. It starred T. P. Rajalakshmi, T. V. Sundaram, "Battling" C. S. D. Singh, V. S. Mani, T. P. Rajagopal and "Stunt" Rajoo....

,that is based on the name of her own born Daughter,Smt.T. S. Kamala.

Stage career

In order to support her family, Rajalakshmi joined a drama troupe and acted in stageplays. She learnt dance and music from Sankaradas Swamigal, a popular dramatist. Rajalakshmi got her big break in 1931, when she was cast as the heroine in the first Tamil talkie, Kalidas

Kalidas (film)

Kalidas was the first Tamil talkie film made in 1931. It was produced on the sets of Alam Ara by Ardeshir Irani. The director was Irani's former assistant H.M. Reddy. The film had dialogues and songs in Tamil and Telugu.-Production:...

.

Filmography

Film Name	Year	Director	Role
Uthami	1943		Actor
Paranjoti	1945	T. R. Raghunath	Actor
Kalidas	1931	H. M. Reddy	Actor
Bhama Parinayam	1936	V. V. Rao	Actor
Simanthini	1936	Ellis R. Duncan	Actor
Tamil Thayi	1939		Actor
Poornachandra	1935	D. R. Das	Actor
Saguna Saraasa	1939	Narayan Deware	Actor
Rajeshwari	1930	Raja Sandow	Actor
Anadhai Penn	1938	Raghupathy S. Prakasa	Actor
Idhaya Geetham	1950	Joseph Taliath	Actor
Miss Kamala	1936	T. P. Rajalakshmi	Actor.Director
Lalithangi	1935		Actor
Usha Sundari	1930	Raja Sandow	Actor
Bhakta Kuchela	1935	K. Subrahmanyam	Actor
Bhakta Kumaran	1939	K. Rangarao	Actor
Madurai Veeran	1938	T. P. Rajalakshmi	Actor.Director
Gul-e-bakavali	1935	S. Soundararajan	Actor
Kausalya Parinayam	1937	C. S. V. Iyer	Actor
Savitri Satyavan	1933		Actor
Nandakumar	1938	N. D. Sarpotdar	Actor
Kovalan	1929	Raghupathy S. Prakasa	Actor
Jeevajyoti	1947	K. M. Multani	Actor

See Also