Veteran Telugu film actress and producer-director Vijaya Nirmala passed away on 27th June in Hyderabad. She was 75 years old. She was the second wife of superstar Krishna and mother of actor Naresh. Actor Krishna was also Vijaya Nirmala’s second husband. She was earlier married to actor Krishna Murthy whom she divorced. Her son, Naresh, was born from her first marriage.
Vijaya Nirmala had acted in around 200 films and directed 44 films. Her name finds mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the female director with the maximum number of films to her credit as director.
With her husband, Krishna alone, she had acted in as many as 47 films, many of them super-hits. The two fell in love while they were shooting for their first film together, Sakshi. Krishna and Vijaya Nirmala remained inseparable all through their married life.
Vijaya Nirmala was an excellent cook and often cooked food on the sets or, at least, ensured that the unit got tasty meals. While shooting of Krishna’s Hare Krishna Hello Radha was on in the USA in 1980, she saw the unit struggling to eat Western food. She promptly went to the market, picked up ingredients and cooked regular Andhra food for the entire staff. She was an out-and-out family person.
Although her original name was Nirmala, she changed her name to Vijaya Nirmala as she had got her break with a film produced by Vijaya Productions. She had started her acting career as a child artiste in a Tamil film.