Gayathri Raguram

Gayatri Raguram is an Indian politician from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, choreographer and former actress who has worked in the South Indian film industry.

Gayathri was born in a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family as the second daughter to dance choreographers Raghuram and Girija Raghuram.

Her elder sister Suja is a prominent dancer, who has also previously worked as an actress.

She is the great-granddaughter of director Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam.

Her mother, Girija comes from a family of choreographers, which includes Brinda and Kala.

She was evicted from the show o the 56th day, after having attracted widespread criticism for her behaviour inside the Bigg Boss House.

In particular, her constant harassment and bullying of contestants Bharani, Julie and then Oviya were widely criticised.

A police complaint was filed against her for using derogatory words against Oviya by saying that Oviya has seri behaviour (Slum behaviour) and hurting the sentiment of others, while on the show.

Post her appearance on the show, Gayathri returned to choreography, and also appeared as a judge on the television show, Mrs Chinnathirai.

She initially was cast in S. Thanu's production Enna Solla Pogiray in 2001, but the project was later dropped.

Her debut film, Repallelo Radha featured her alongside newcomer Dileep.

Her next film, Sakthi Chidambaram's comedy drama Charlie Chaplin (2002), featured her in an ensemble cast alongside Prabhu Deva, Prabhu and Abhirami.

She was selected for the film after Gayatri Jayaraman opted out of the project.

The film enjoyed commercial success, with a critic from The Hindu stating "the new heroine's expertise in dance is particularly impressive".

In 2002, she appeared in three more films: the Kannada film Manasella Neene directed by choreographer Sundaram, the Tamil film Style alongside choreographer Raghava Lawrence and the Malayalam film, Nakshathrakkannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari, where she starred opposite Prithviraj.

Her four consequent releases in 2003 fared less well at the box office and failed to garner her more film offers.

In concern of her performance in the horror film Whistle (2003), a critic from The Hindu wrote "Gayathri Raghuram's face is and her expressions are just right but rotundity seems to come in the way of wholesome appeal".

Likewise, a critic wrote "Gayathri, as the garrulous friend of the hero, begins well, and even when you think she might have a solid role to play, she turns out to be just another weighty heroine in tow", in regard of her appearance in the Arjun-starrer Parasuram (2003).

Subsequently, she quit films and relocated to pursue a qualification in Visual Communications in Iowa, USA.

In August 2006, Gayathri had an arranged marriage with US-based software engineer Deepak Chandrasekar in California and the pair subsequently held a Hindu ceremony in December 2006 which was attended by several actors and politicians from Tamil Nadu.

In 2008, Gayathri filed for divorce on the grounds of domestic abuse from Deepak and his parents.

Gayathri returned to the film industry in 2008 as a choreographer with films like Jayam Kondaan (2008) and Poi Solla Porom (2008) and has since worked in big budget productions including Madrasapattinam (2010), Deiva Thirumagal (2013), Osthe (2011) and Anjaan (2014).

Her work in the crime thriller Kanthaswamy (2009) and the satire Tamil Padam (2010) were well received by critics.

The divorce was subsequently granted in 2010.

After announcing her intentions of directing a film in 2012, she began work on her first directorial venture Yaadhumagi Nindraai during 2016.

By 2014, she had choreographed around 100 films and has regularly specialised in working on romantic montages.

Gayatri acted once more in Vai Raja Vai (2015) at the insistence of her friend Aishwarya Dhanush by portraying the sister of the film's lead character Gautham Karthik.

Likewise, she made an extended guest appearance in director Bala's village drama Tharai Thappattai (2016), where she also featured in a karakattam-based song.

In 2017, Gayathri was a contestant on the Tamil reality show Bigg Boss hosted by Kamal Haasan.

After Bigg Boss, she appeared in the show Mrs. Chinnathirai in 2017 where she appeared as a judge alongside Shakthi Vasudevan.

In 2018 she appeared in the reality show Bigg Boss 2 as an guest.

Gayathri was booked for a drunk and driving case in November 2019 by Abhiramapuram Traffic Control Police.

Police reported that she left a party from a hotel in MRC Nagar organized for film personalities and was on her way home when she was intercepted by the police, she admitted that she had drunk alcohol when she was asked to blow into the breathing analyzer.

A police officer later drove her to her house in Adyar and confiscated her car.

A case under Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act was filed on her and she was also fined for the incident.

Gayathri however claimed it was fake news.

This incident drew strong criticism from BJP party cadres.

On 26 October 2020, Raguram was permanently suspended from social media platform Twitter for violating Twitter's rules after posting a series of tweets relating to the controversy over VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan's statement on Manusmriti.

Gayathri Raghuram started acting at the age of fourteen.

Early in her career, she insisted on being known by her full name to avoid confusion with another actress, Gayatri Jayaraman, who was also active in the period.