Veteran actress Jaya Prada had an entire generation of youngsters swooning over her charm and everlasting beauty. She started her career as an actress at just the age of 14. Director K Balachander’s monochrome movie Anthuleni Katha highlighted her prowess in drama; K. Viswanath’s vibrant film Siri Siri Muvva portrayed her as a mute girl with exceptional dancing abilities; and her portrayal of the titular character Sita in the high-budget mythological production Seetha Kalyanam affirmed her versatility. She made her Hindi film debut opposite Rishi Kapoor in Sargam.
In an old interview with Doordarshan, Jaya Prada had revealed the most harrowing shooting experience that she ever had. It was during the filming of the 1981 film Agni Poolu, directed by K Bappaya. The movie, adapted from Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani’s novel of the same title, also drew inspiration from V Shantaram’s Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli. She had to dance like a snake in one of the songs of this movie. K Bappaya asked her if she could attempt the dance. This hurt Jaya Prada and she was in tears but the worst was yet to come.
Multiple dance rehearsals with the dance choreographer of the films were held. On one occasion, Jaya Prada fell ill with fever with a temperature of 103 degree, due to which she reached the rehearsals five minutes late. The choreographer was mad at her and made her stand on one leg for half an hour as punishment for her delay. She said she started crying and eventually the choreographer realised she was genuinely sick. “But it was all worth it because at the end of the day the movie did well and people heaped praises on me”, she had said in the interview.
Jaya Prada has starred in all the South Indian language films, along with Hindi, Bengali and Marathi films. She was last seen in the Malayalam film Ramachandra Boss & Co, which released last year and was a box office failure.
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