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Laxmi (sometimes credited as Lakshmi Narayan or just Lakshmi) is a South Indian actress. She is also known for her title role in the Hindi hit film Julie (1975 film) for which she won the Filmfare Best Actress Award.^[1] She was born in 1953.

Her mother was an actress, and her father was also involved in films, and they eased her into films. She was fifteen when she started acting in films. She became a star in South India in the 1970s and acted in all four South Indian languages: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Her Malayalam hit Chattakari (1974) was remade in Hindi as Julie (1975) and in Telugu as "Miss Julie Prema Katha" (1975). In addition to the Filmfare Best Actress Award, she won an award from the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards for "most outstanding work of the year," for her work in "Julie."^[2] After her success in "Julie," however, she didn't star in many Hindi films and instead concentrated on doing more South Indian films. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for the Tamil film "Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal" (1977), becoming the first South Indian actress to win in that category. When her career as a leading lady ended in the 1980s, she started playing supporting roles as mother and later as grandmother. She played Aishwarya Rai's grandmother in Jeans (1998) and Kareena Kapoor's grandmother in Hulchul (2004). She has also been involved in politics.

Laxmi took a break from acting to host two talk shows, including the Tamil talk show "achamillai, achamillai". After the talk shows ended, she returned to acting in films. She is proud of her fluency in all four South Indian languages.^[3]

Laxmi was married three times. Her first marriage was to Baskar, which was arranged by her parents when she was seventeen. Her only child, Aishwarya, was born in 1971. Her marriage ended in divorce, and she gained custody of her daughter, who later became an actress in the 1990s. Laxmi fell in love with her Chattakari leading man Mohan, but that relationship ended. While she was shooting "Yen Uyir Kannamma," she and actor-director Sivachandran fell in love and got married. But that marriage ended in divorce.^[4]. She was married to her third husband. Her daughter gave birth to a baby girl in the late 1990s, making Laxmi into a real-life grandmother.