All you need to know about the only Bollywood film Jayalalithaa acted in

The fact that Jayalalithaa left behind a successful movie career for politics is well documented. But, did you know that she also acted in a Bollywood film?

In the midst of her successful movie career, Jayalalithaa starred opposite Dharmendra in a 1968 Hindi movie titled Izzat.

The movie was directed by the popular Tamil-Telugu director T Prakash Rao who had a distinction of making several successful Hindi films in the 1960s with leading ladies from the South. His previous outings included Vyjayanthimala in College Girl, Suraj and Duniya and Padmini in Nanhya Farishta, among others.

Rao's cultural comfort in transitioning between Tamil and Hindi cinema was the reason he was given the responsibility of launching Jayalalithaa in Bollywood.

In Izzat, Dharmendra had a double role in the movie and played the roles of two sons of an arrogant Thakur, who impregnates a tribal woman on a hunting expedition.

The tribal woman gives birth to a son who later falls in love with a grieving upper class woman, while the Thakur’s legitimate son falls for an outspoken, chirpy and brazen tribal girl, Jhumki, played by a young Jayalalithaa.

Despite Rao’s track record of delivering b0x-office successes, Izzat failed to make money and the movie sank without a trace.

However, many remember Jayalalithaa's graceful dancing to Lata Mangeshkar's Jaagi Re Badan Mein Jaala Saiyyan Tuney Kya Kar Dala in the film.