- She was a character actress, playing supporting roles either as sister or mother to the leading actors.
- She worked as a secretary in the Directorate of Agriculture before becoming an actress.
- She persuaded her teenager daughter 'Jayalalitha J.' to enter films as a leading lady to financially support the family when in 1964 Jayalalitha received offers from.B.R.Panthulu for Chinnada Gombe and from Pratyagatma for Manushulu Mamathalu and from S. K . Ananth a charity for Mane Aliya. Her daughter became the number one star in South India from 1965 to 1980 and later became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 6 times after 1990.
- She belonged to a distinguished Tamil Brahmin family.
- When she was of the age 26, her husband died in 1950, leaving her with two young children. Her younger sister was actress Vidyavathi, and when producers and director came to see her, they also saw Sandhya and were struck by her looks. They offered her roles, and she entered films as an actress to financially support her family.
- Actress Vidhyavthi (Ambujam) was Sandhya's sister.
- Jayalalitha's mother Sandhya and Jayalalitha's mom's sister Vidya, along with their grand-parents lived in House No 91, East Chittirai Street initially in Srirangam in 1910-1930 period. They were Iyengaars. They were staying as tenants, but after some time the family moved to a new place, several houses away on the same street to House No 104, which they had purchased and named as Komala Vilas Veda Nilayam. Later the new occupants of House No 104 renamed it as "Komala Vilas- Alamelu Illam.".
- Sandhya's father had bought the house at Door Number 104 in East Chittirai Street in Srirangam from a Divan and named it as Komala Vilas Veda Nilayam. Sandhya's father was a practicing lawyer at Karur in the 1910-1930 period.
- After death of her husband Jayaram 1950, Jaya'smother Vedavalli took her children Jaya Kumar and Jayalalithaa to Bangalore where her maternal parents lived and started working as a typist. Vedavallii's sister Ambujam/ Ambujavalli, was an air hostess in Madras since 1948 and had got some breaks in Tamil films from 1951. Ambujawali was working as an air hostess and was also acting in dramas and films using the screen name Vidyaavathi. Ambujavalli encouraged Vedavallii to also come to Chennai and be part of theatre and films taking screen name of Sandhya. Hence Vedavalli came to Chennai to be actress since 1953 under the name Sandhya.
- Vedavalli had two children by Jayaram. One was a son, Jayakumar, and the other a daughter, Jayalalithaa. Jayalalitha was given her grandmother's name Koamalavalli at the time of birth.. The name Jayalalitha was adopted when she was in play school. It was derived from the names of two houses where she resided in Mysore. One was "Jaya Vilas" and the other "Lalitha Vilas". H.
- Sister Vidyavathy acted in dramas produced by the famous Y.G. Parthasarathy the father of comedian Y.G. Mahendran. YGP as he was known ran the drama troupe United Amateur Artistes (UAA), which staged English and Tamil plays. Soon Jayalalithaa while a school girl began acting in some YGP plays along with her mother and aunt.
- NR Sandhya, Jayalalithaa's mother, died in the year 1971 and as per her will she bequeathed her shares to Jayalalithaa in the properties belonging to Natayakala Niketan, in which both were partners and also land and building in Poes Garden, Chennai, a house in Hyderabad, and lands totally measuring upto 10.2 acres in Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh. Along with the land, there was a grape garden, a farm house and servants quarters purchased in 1968 valued at Rs 1,65,058. There was one more land measuring upto 3.5 acres in Basheerabad village, Andhra Pradesh.
- She was only 11 when she was married and 47 when she died.
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