Gautami Tadimalla (born 2 July 1968) is an Indian actress, social worker, politician and Deputy Propaganda Secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. She has worked mainly in Tamil and Telugu cinema, in addition to Malayalam, Hindi, and Kannada films. She was one of the leading South Indian actresses from 1987 to 1998. She is also a television actress, television host, the founder of Life Again Foundation and a costume designer in films.[1][2]
Personal life
Gautami in Life Again Foundation Charity Work
Gautami was born into a Telugu-speaking family from Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh to T. R. Seshagiri Rao and Vasundhara Devi. Her father was a radiation oncologist and her mother a pathologist and diagnostician. Gautami attended Bishop Cotton Girls' School, Bengaluru.[3]
Gautami married Sandeep Bhatia, a businessman, in 1998, and the couple have a daughter, Subbulakshmi born in 1999. They later got divorced in 1999.
Gautami was in a relationship with actor Kamal Haasan from 2005 till 2016. In 2016, Gautami announced on her blog that she had ended her relationship with him.[4] Gautami wrote on her blog: "It is heartbreaking for me to have to say today that I and Mr. Haasan are no longer together. After almost 13 years together, it has been one of the most devastating decisions that I have ever had to make in my life".[5]
She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35,[6] and recovered later.[7][8][9]
Film career
She was introduced to Tamil film industry through Guru Shishyan (1988), a film that starred Rajinikanth and Prabhu.[1] She was most active in Tamil cinema from 1987 to 1998.
Gautami went to GITAM University in Visakhapatnam to pursue engineering. Gautami made her debut in Telugu with the film Dayamayudu (1987). that was produced by her cousin.[1][10] She then appeared in films like Srinivasa Kalyanam with Venkatesh and Bhanupriya.
She made a guest appearance in the song "Chikku Bukku Railu" with Prabhu Deva in the film Gentleman (1993).[1] Her film Sasanam, featuring Arvind Swami, released in 2006, but it was shot in 1996.[11] She played the lead in the Tamil serial Indira. She had hosted a talk show in Sun TV titled Anbudan.[10] She acted in the serial Abirami which was telecast on Kalaignar TV.[12] She made a comeback to the film industry in the late 2000s as a costume designer for films starring her partner Kamal Haasan. She went on to style several of her other films, including Vishwaroopam (2013) and Uttama Villain (2015).
After sixteen years, she returned to acting, by starring in the Tamil film Papanasam (2015), in which she was paired with her partner Kamal Haasan, remake of the original Malayalam film, Drishyam.[13] She made comeback to Malayalam after 14 years in the horror thriller titled E (2017) playing the lead role.[14][15]
Political career
BJP (1997 - 2023)
Gautami is a member of the BJP since 1997. She was BJYM vice president [16] She joined the party in 1997 under the leadership of LK Advani. She extensively campaigned for Atal Bihari Vajpayee during that period in Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. She took a break from politics after her daughter was born. She is back into BJP in 2017. In 2021, she was appointed as in-charge of the Rajapalayam Assembly constituency.[citation needed] On 23 October 2023, She quit BJP, claiming that the party's senior members have been helping a person who has swindled her off her properties.[17]
Gautami founded Life Again Foundation (LAF) to help cancer patients.[21] Life Again Foundation has conducted more than 360 motivational camps for cancer patients, cancer awareness campaigns, and food drives. It also conducts Yoga and Alternative Therapy programs. It also periodically conducts health camps to conduct tests that screen for cancer and overall health.[22] LAF also runs 2 Mobile hospitals.[21] It also sponsors under-privileged students for higher education.[22] It runs Supplementary Education Centres and Vocational Training Centres.[22]
