Across the border in neighbouring Karnataka there is a village which mourns Jayalalithaa as one of their own.
Naguvinahalli village lies in, ironically, Mandya district which has seen the most protests over the years against the Tamil Nadu administration on the sharing of Cauvery river water.
The reason goes back nearly 50 years, when Jayalalithaa was a popular star in Tamil cinema. The villagers had approached the 19-year-old heroine for help in building a school, and she readily agreed.
On March 19, 1967, Jayalalithaa performed a dance for charity at the historic Crawford Hall in Mysore University. The tickets were priced at Rs 10, 25 and 50. The show was a huge success and it raised enough money for a school building at the village.
The village even celebrated Jayalalithaa was re-elected as Chief Minister earlier in the year.
Ramachandraiah, who organised the charity event, still remembers her generosity and the mesmerising dance performance.
“How can I forget that incident? I still vividly remember her dance show. If we have a school in our village, it is only because of Jayalalithaa. Whenever I see the school, I remember Jayalalithaa with gratitude. We are eternally grateful to her,” Ramachandraiah had told News18 at the time of her Re-election.
Karnataka Information Department director N Vishukumar, who is from Naguvinahalli, said elders at the village still talk about the event. “When it happened I was too small. I don’t remember anything. But, everybody in my village including my father Ramakrishnaiah remembers that charity show for our village school,” he said.
Jayalalithaa was born at the Cheluvamba hospital in Mysore in 1948. Her father Jayaram died when she was only four years old. After that, her mother Sandhya shifted to Bengaluru, where Jayalalithaa did her primary schooling at the prestigious Bishop Cotton Girl’s School.
In the early 1960's, her aunt Ambuja alias Vidhya, an airhostess and part-time actor, took Jaya and her mother to Madras (now Chennai), wrote Mysore-based journalist Eechanuru Kumar in an article in Kannada daily “Prajavani”.
According to him, Jayalalithaa’s family owned three huge bungalows – Rama Vilasa, Lalitha Vilasa and Jaya Vilasa - in Mysore. Jaya Vilasa was built for Jayalalithaa, but she could not get to stay there. Her mother sold off all the three houses after she settled in Madras.
Jayalalithaa's first dance performance at the age of 14 in Mysore was inaugurated by Tamil cinema legend Sivaji Ganesan.
“Forget the Cauvery dispute for a moment. She is, after all, our contribution to Tamil cinema and politics. We are truly proud and happy” said R Bharatadri, a Mysorean who retired recently from Prasar Bharati, at the time of her re-election.
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