Yaragudipadi Venkata Mahalakshmi (born 13 December 1952^[1]), known professionally as Lakshmi, is an Indian actress known for her works primarily in the South Indian film industry (distributing her acting career across all four languages almost equally). She has also acted in some Hindi films. Her debut as a full fledged actress happened with the Tamil film Jeevanaamsam in 1968. In the same year, she acted in the Kannada film Goa Dalli CID 999 and Telugu film Bandhavyalu.

In 1974, her debut Malayalam film, Chattakari went on to become a blockbuster throughout India. She has acted in over 650 films as confirmed in the popular Kannada TV Show Weekend With Ramesh on Zee Kannada channel. Her performance in Mithunam (2012) is regarded as one of the 100 Greatest Performances of the Decade by Film Companion.^{[citation needed]} Lakshmi then went on to appear in a number of commercially successful films in various languages without a hesitation or diction. She dubs her voice for all of her movies, irrespective of the language and remains one of the very few critically acclaimed stars to achieve this stage.

In a career spanning more than five decades she has won one National Film Award for Best Actress, nine Filmfare Awards South, One Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress, Nandi Awards, Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for the movie Hoovu Hannu, the Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards and various other state awards.

Lakshmi made her Bollywood debut in 1975, with the woman-centric Julie, the remake of Malayalam film Chattakkari. After appearing as a lead actress for more than a decade, she switched over to character roles. She is the only actress who has won the Filmfare Awards South in all four south languages as Filmfare Award Best Actress for eight times in various Indian languages. Till now she is the only actress who has won Filmfare award for best actress in all the 5 major film industries namely Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Till now no South actress has won state award in all the 4 south states except Lakshmi. She is also the only Actress who has won Kerala State Film Awards, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka for best Actress and the National Award. This makes her the most versatile and popular actress across South India and also in the Hindi Belt which is now referred as Pan India, so she was one among the early pan Indian star.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][excessive citations]}

Lakshmi was born and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her mother Kumari Rukmini was a Tamil actress.^[8] Her father, Yaragudipati Varada Rao, was a Telugu producer, director, thespian, screenwriter, editor and actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil cinema.^[9]

She established herself as a successful and popular actress in South India in the 1970s, acting in all four South Indian languages: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Lakshmi rose to fame with her first Malayalam movie Chattakari (1974), which won her the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress.^{[citation needed]} This has the distinction of being the first Malayalam film to run continuously for 40 weeks in a Bangalore theatre. Chattakari (1974) was remade in Hindi as Julie (1975) and in Telugu as Miss Julie Prema Katha (1975). In addition to a Filmfare Best Actress Award,^[10] she also won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards for the "most outstanding work of the year", for her work in Julie.^[11] She is known for her versatility as an actress and for the glamorous outlook she embodied. Her acting in the Telugu film Panthulamma is often credited as one of her best performances.^[12]

After the success of her debut Malayalam film Chattakari, she starred in many other films in Malayalam. She won Filmfare Awards for Best Actress for her performances in Chalanum and Mohiniyaattam.^{[citation needed]}

She has acted with almost all the leading actors and stars of South India, but it was her combination with the famous Kannada star Anant Nag in the 70s and 80s that struck a chord with the audience. Nag and Lakshmi are considered one of the all-time greatest pairs in South Indian cinema. They acted together in more than 25 films. Their pair was considered the right recipe for success. Most of the films based on TaRaSu novels were based on the life of young middle class couples.

After her success in Julie, however, Lakshmi didn't star in many Hindi films and instead concentrated on doing more South Indian films. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal (1977),^{[citation needed]} becoming one of the first South Indian actresses to win that category for a Tamil film. When her career as a leading lady ended in the 1980s, she started playing supporting roles as a mother and later as grandmother. She played Aishwarya Rai's grandmother in the Tamil musical blockbuster film, Jeans (1998) and Kareena Kapoor's grandmother in the hit film, Hulchul (2004).

She has performed in more than 400 films and has also been involved in politics.^{[citation needed]}

Under K. Balachander's supervision, she made her directorial debut with a remake of Yours, Mine and Ours: the Kannada film Makkala Sainya (1980 Tamil version Mazhalai Pattalam).^[13]

Lakshmi is fluent in all four South Indian languages. She took a break from acting to host two talk shows, including the Tamil talk show Achamillai, Achamillai.^{[citation needed]}She hosted a talk show in Kannada for Suvarna channel called Idu Kathe Alla Jeevana.^[14] She also hosts a talk show in Tamil for Vijay TV called Kadhai Alla Nijam. She has hosted a talk show in Kannada for Suvarna channel called Neena? Naana?

After the shows ended, she returned to act in films. ^{[citation needed]}

Currently she is on the judges' panel for the Malayalam reality show Champions on Surya TV. She is also a judge for a Kannada reality show called Drama Juniors on Zee Kannada. She has overall appeared in over 650 films across languages as confirmed on popular Kannada show Weekend with Ramesh on Zee Kannada.

Lakshmi's first marriage was with Bhaskaran with whom she has a daughter, actress Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran.^[15] They later got divorced.

Her second marriage was with co-star Mohan Sharma on the sets of Chattakari (1975) and ended in divorce (1980).

While she was shooting En Uyir Kannamma (1988) she and actor-director M. Sivachandran fell in love and got married (1987). The couple adopted a girl named Samyuktha in 2000.^[16]

• Adutha Veetu Kavithai
• Nallathor Veenai
• Mahalakshmi

• Kannadada Kotyadhipati as Contestant (Kannada)
• Kadhai Alla Nijam reality show in Vijay TV (Tamil)
• Neena Naana as Host (Kannada)
• Champions as Judge (Kannada)
• Drama Juniors as Judge (Kannada)
• Kathe Alla Jeevana (Kannada)