Veteran Tamil actress-director passed away – Film industry mourns

P Jayadevi was a renowned actress, director, producer and screenwriter in the Tamil film industry in the 80s and 90s. She passed away yesterday at the age of 65. She was treated in a private hospital for the past few days due to ill health and was discharged a few days ago. But she breathed her last on Wednesday.

Jayadevi was regarded as one of the first female directors in the Tamil film industry. Having begun her career as a theatre artist, Jayadevi began acting in films at age 20 and initially nursed ambitions of becoming a director. She appeared as an actress in over 20 films before working as a producer and making over 15 movies.

Jayadevi debuted as an actress at the age of 20 in 1976 with the film ‘Idhaya Malar’. She first worked as a director in Nalam Nalamariya Aaval (1984) and subsequently went on to make more films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She was previously married to film director Velu Prabhakaran. She died on 4 October 2023.