MGR and Jaya were the most celebrated pair onscreen and off screen when they parted ways in 1970Jayalalithaa was “Ammu” for M G Ramachandran. She hoped to live with the matinee idol who was already married and 31 years older than her. After all he wanted her to accompany him everywhere and cared for her despite opposition from several quarters.
Jayalalithaa planned her marriage several times but MGR always backed out, Vasanthi writes in Jayalalithaa’s biography titled ‘Amma’. Her greatest ambition in life was to live with the man she loved, Vasanthi adds.
MGR and Jaya were the most celebrated pair onscreen and off screen when they parted ways in 1970. They were destined to be apart for almost a decade. MGR picked other actresses for his movies while Jaya became close to Telugu actor Shobhan Babu. There is no confirmation of her getting married to Babu, except a friend’s claim to have seen their wedding album, as documented in ‘Amma’. Later, rumors started doing the rounds that the couple called it quits.
Meanwhile, MGR became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu in 1977. Four years later, Jaya received a phone call from her former mentor. He wanted her to join his party, Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam. MGR wanted Jaya’s fan base to offset the oratory of his bitter rival M Karunanidhi. Jaya rose up the rungs swiftly. And she ruffled many feathers in the party.
She was accused of ignoring the party leadership but her popularity grew steadily. Her critics succeeded in creating rifts between her and MGR. He prevailed over her to end the serialized publication of her autobiography that appeared in a Tamil magazine. They grew apart again.
Jaya did not even know about MGR’s decision to go to the United States for medical treatment in 1984. She was kept away when he was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Chennai. She even wrote to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to let her meet MGR. The Chief Minister, however, kept her at a distance even after he returned from the United States after a kidney transplant. Jaya was locked in the VIP lounge in the airport by some party leaders when she went to receive him.
The cause of the rift was never revealed, though it was rumored that MGR was irritated by her demand to be made the interim chief minister while he was away. The letters Jaya wrote to MGR got leaked promptly.
Jaya gradually lost all positions within the party. In 1986, a caucus was formed within the party and it was named Jayalalitha Peravai. Jaya denied any knowledge of the caucus but that did not help. As her ouster from the party became imminent, Jaya met with the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and told him that her faction had the support of more legislators.
MGR could not afford to let Jaya form a new party – as he gathered from her meeting with Gandhi – and called her back into the fold. She was reappointed to all the posts she held earlier.
“My early years were dominated by my mother. Later, it was MGR. I did not have a life of my own under their shadow,” Jaya once said. After Jaya’s mother died, her every movement was controlled by MGR, Jaya’s former public relations agent Film News Anandan has said. MGR even set her remuneration and received it. Jaya had to rely on MGR for money.
Even when she lost all liberty, she wanted to legitimize the affair with MGR and wipe off the rumors that shrouded her life.
Jaya loved MGR with all her life and hated him for abandoning her. He died in 1987. Jaya remained unmarried.
