Sitting comfortably in her pink sari, Jayalalithaa, the actress turned politician poured her heart out to a television host, sharing intimate details of her personal life, which were until then, speculative gossip.
Sharing a moment of truth, she said:
I am human, like everyone else. I do experience emotions and, I wouldn’t be normal if I didn’t experience feelings of anger and other emotions.
Her persona and political career, however, have been presented as a larger than life story – one in which a dramatic twist of destiny turned a shy, reclusive girl into a reluctant political leader, who took on the mantle to save the masses.
But, behind this is the story of a meticulously constructed narrative of a larger-than-life persona.
Jayalalitha started writing about her life in the Tamil weekly ‘Kumudam’ in 1978. Her narrative strengthened when she became the ‘Propaganda Secretary’ for the political party, AIADMK. She described its leader, M.G. Ramachandran as her “everything – mother, father, friend, philosopher, guide” and her association with him gave wings to her political ambitions.
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