Vijayashanti is an Indian film actress, producer and a politician. In a film career spanning thirty years, she has acted in over 186 feature films in a variety of roles in various Indian languages including  Telugu,  Tamil,  Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. She was tagged "The Lady Superstar" and "Lady Amitabh" of South Indian cinema. Vijayashanti was born in Madras, Madras State to Varalaxmi and Srinivas Prasad. Vijayashanti began her acting career at the age of 13, playing the leading lady in the Tamil film Kallukkul Eeram ("The moisture inside stone / rock"), directed by Bharathiraja. In the same year, she debuted in Telugu cinema with the movie Kilaadi Krishnudu, opposite Krishna. She was given screen name "Vijaya Shanthi", which was based on that of her aunt and veteran actress Vijaya Lalitha. Vijayashantis first break as a performer came in the 1983 Telugu film Neti Bharatham directed by T. Krishna.