Vyjayantimala was the first South Indian actress who made it as a national star and was one of the biggest ever Hindi Film female stars in a career lasting almost two decades. Besides her ability as an actress, which was considerable, her greatest legacy to Indian Cinema perhaps is that it has become a must for any aspiring actress in Indian Cinema to be an accomplished dancer. Vyjayantimala has always had the mandatory dance sequence in practically every film of hers evoking 'classical art' associations. This pseudo-classical style is perhaps a filmic equivalent of calendar art's version of Ajanta murals and Tanjore glass paintings.

She started in Tamil films under M.V. Raman's direction at AVM with Vazkai/ Jeevitham (1949) a bilingual and later adapted as Bahar (1951), which was AVM and Vyjayantimala's initial foray into Hindi Films.

She became a major star with Filmistan's Nagin (1954). Crowd's thronged to see her snaky gyrations to that evergreen Lata Mangeshkar hit - Man Dole, Mera Man Dole.

With Devdas (1955), Vyjayantimala, playing the dancing girl Chandramukhi, proved herself to be an actress of considerable merit. There was a till now unexplored depth in her characterization. Her silent expression in the scene where Devdas offers her money for her services was award worthy and indeed she did win the Filmfare Award for Devdas as Supporting Actress. She however refused the award on the grounds of her role being equally important as the other heroine, Suchitra Sen who played Paro and that both were leading roles.

She replaced Madhubala in Naya Daur (1957) and shot to the highest echelons of stardom with Bimal Roy's Madhumati (1958) and her role of a prostitute in Sadhana (1958) fetched her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Ganga Jamuna (1961) saw another flawless performance from her. It is to her credit that in spite of her South-Indian upbringing, her bhojpuri dialect in the film is near perfect and fetched her another Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

She got her third Best Actress Award for Raj Kapoor's Sangam (1964), one of the best triangles in Indian Cinema. But while doing Sangam she got involved in an ill-fated romance with Raj Kapoor.

When they broke off, it is said Vyjayantimala was a changed person having turned bitter and even arrogant. The flopping of the dancing magnum opus Amrapali (1966) with her in the title role didn't help. Having fought with Dilip Kumar, she left Ram aur Shyam (1967) and was replaced by Waheeda Rehman. (though she completed Sangharsh (1968) with Dilip Kumar, the two hardly spoke to one another throughout the making of the film!)

Also after Sangam, barring Amrapali, her later films were pretty lightweight and made no challenges on her as an actress. She has her moments in Jewel Thief (1967) though. Her dancing in the cult song Hoton Pe Aisi Baat was brilliant; it was a song with long and complex shot takings with both character movement and camera movement but Vyjayantimala effortlessly sailed through the song. But it was clear she was losing interest in films. Her costar of Pyar hi Pyar (1969), Dharmendra, remembers he completed the whole film with her without even being introduced to her!

She got married to Raj Kapoor's personal physician Dr. Bali and left the Film Industry. She has since had a son Suchindra, dabbled in various businesses like shrimp farming and even stood for elections and was a Member of Parliament in the 1980s, besides concentrating on her first love - dancing. Her son, Suchindra, has now entered the Tamil Film Industry to try and make it as an actor.