Yaragudipadi Venkata Mahalakshmi (born 13 December 1952), known professionally as Lakshmi, is an Indian actress known for her works primarily in the southern film industry (distributing her acting career in almost each Dravidian language equally), along with some Hindi films. She made her film debut through a Tamil film Sri Valli in 1961. Her debut as an actress happened with the Tamil film Jeevanaamsam in 1968. In the same year, she also debuted in Kannada and Telugu films with Goa Dalli CID 999 and Bandhavyalu, and in 1974.

In 1974, her debut Malayalam film, Chattakari went on to become a blockbuster throughout India. Her performance in Mithunam (2012) is regarded as one of the 100 Greatest Performances of the Decade by Film Companion. Lakshmi then went on to appear in a number of commercially successful films in various languages without a hesitation or diction. She dubs her voice for all of her movies, irrespective of the language and remains one of the very few critically acclaimed stars to achieve this stage.

In a career spanning more than five decades she has won one National Film Award for Best Actress, nine Filmfare Awards South, three Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress, Nandi Awards, Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for the movie Hoovu Hannu, the Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards and various other state awards.

Lakshmi made her Bollywood debut in 1975, with the woman-centric Julie, the remake of Malayalam film Chattakkari. After appearing as a lead actress for more than a decade, she switched over to character roles. She is the only actress who has won the Filmfare Awards South in all four south languages as Filmfare Award Best Actress for eight times in various Indian languages. Till now she is the only actress who has won Filmfare award for best actress in all the 5 major film industries namely Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Till now no South actress has won state award in all the 4 south states except Lakshmi. She ki is also the only Actress who has won Kerala State Film Awards, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka for best Actress and the National Award. This makes her the most versatile and popular actress across South India and also in the Hindi Belt which is now referred as Pan India, so she was one among the early pan Indian star.

Early life
Lakshmi was born and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her mother Kumari Rukmini was a Tamil actress. Her father, Yaragudipati Varada Rao, was a Telugu producer, director, thespian, screenwriter, editor and actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil cinema.