Mallika-E-Tarannum 
I had never met Jayalalithaa before. Many people "warned" me about her, that she was temperamental, imperious and difficult, so I went to Chennai with some trepidation!
She was punctual to the second. When the cameras rolled she took a minute or two to ‘assess’ me; and then she dropped her guard. Within 10 minutes we were both singing 'Aaja
Sanam’ together!
Jaya-ji speaks with amazing clarity. There was no fumbling or searching for words. She never evaded any question. And after the interview she laid out a superb tea for my entire crew. We all came away with the highest admiration for her.
People have tried to analyse Jayalalithaa as a politician; I felt it was more important to try and understand her first as a human-being. I think I succeeded in that. If you see the interview you’ll know..
The day the interview was aired Jaya-ji called and said the feedback she received was amazing! I also received calls from leading politicians and every leading newspaper editor in the country and they all said the same thing:
" We never knew she was like this...we have judged her wrongly...we saw a side to her we never knew existed!"..
