given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practising artists. Background and personal life She was born in Triplicane near Parthasarathy Temple in a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family to Mandyam Dhati Raman and Vasundhara Devi. She was raised primarily by her grandmother, Yadugiri Devi. Her ancestors were from Mysore. Her mother was a leading actress in Tamil Cinema in the 1940s where her Mangama Sabatham was the first Tamil film to be declared a "colossal" hit at the box office. At the age of seven, Vyjayanthimala was chosen to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XII while her mother was an audience in 1940 at Vatican City. Vyjayanthi attended Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Presentation Convent, Church Park, Chennai. She learned Bharata Natyam from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and Carnatic music from Manakkal Sivaraja Iyer. She had her arangetram at the age of 13 and started performing in Tamil Nadu later. Her maternal uncle is Y. G. Parthasarathy. In 1938, her grandfather, Mandyam Dhati Gopalacharya, started a nursing home on Narayan Shastri Road, Mysore. Relationships In her heyday, Vyjayanthimala was the subject of many controversies, particularly for her misconstrued relationships with her co-stars. In the late 1950s, Vyjayanthimala was linked by gossip magazines with Dilip Kumar, who has acted with her the most compared to any other actress, which resulted in great on-screen chemistry between them. While working for his home production Gunga Jumna (1961), Kumar reportedly handpicked the shade of sari that Vyjayanthimala would wear in every scene. In the early 1960s, actor Raj Kapoor had commenced the filming of Sangam with Vyjayanthimala playing the female lead along with Rajendra Kumar and Kapoor himself as the male lead. The filming took four years to finish. During this time Vyjayanthimala is said to have been romantically involved with Kapoor and almost married him. Initially, she was vexed with him and kept him at a distance. However, Kapoor did not give up over her attitude. However, Vyjayanthimala in her autobiography mentioned that it was a publicity stunt by newspapers in North India to link her with Raj Kapoor and that she was never in any relationship with him. Vyjayanthimala married the already married Chamanlal Bali, a Punjabi Hindu Arya Samaji from Delhi but lived in Anna Salai, Chennai in 1968. After marriage, she gave up her acting career and moved to Chennai. However, between 1968