There are some things about Jayalithaa the CM of Tamilnadu which people do not know. Her life with Telug star Shoban Babu is an open secret and there are rumors in the social media that they have a daughter who exactly looks like Jaya Amma.
Amma is on record as saying that she used to go for cricket matches with her binoculars “just to look at Pataudi and Pataudi alone.” She also had a crush on Nari Contractor, and collected photographs of Rock Hudson.
But not in a good way. She holds the record for hosting the “largest wedding banquet/reception”. In 1995, during her first term as Chief Minister, she organised an obscenely lavish wedding for her ‘foster son’ Sudhagaran. The Guinness record book notes that over 1,50,000 guests were invited to the wedding at a 50-acre ground in Chennai.The Income Tax Department estimated the wedding cost at Rs 10 crore, but she said it was all paid for by “the people”.
In 1992, Jayalalithaa attended the mahamakam festival in Kumbakonam, the Kumbh Mela of South India. Sections of the ghats where she was to have a ritual bath were cordoned off, but the crowds that thronged to see her were caught in a stampede, in which nearly 50 people were killed..
A distinction she serves with several others. When she became Chief Minister, she was given a cheque as her first salary. She said she had “abundant sources of income and did not need the salary.” On being told that she should receive salary as a public servant, she accepted Re 1 as salary.
The incident in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in which she said she was nearly disrobed by DMK MLAs is well chronicled. But what’s less known is that when she was Chief Minister in 1992, she accused the then Governor of Tamil Nadu, M. Channa Reddy, of having “misbehaved” with her. That’s a charge anyone could readily believe of Channa Reddy, who shared with another infamous Congress Governor the reputation of performing sexual acts inside the Raj Bhavan.
Around 1981, with a fading filmy career and a failed relationship, Jayalalithaa seemed to have got into depression and tried to end her life. It was M.G.Ramachandran, her estranged mentor then,who reportedly saved her life, and also inducted her into his party as the Propaganda Secretary, a post specially created for her.
