BR Vijayalakshmi

BR Vijayalakshmi is an Indian cinematographer. She started her career as an assistant to cinematographer Ashok Kumar and made her feature film debut in 1985 through the Tamil film Chinna Veedu. She joined Ashok Kumar in the 1980 Tamil film Nenjathai Killathe and continued to work under him for nearly 30 films over a period of three years. During this time she did "Clash work" for films such as Kai Kodukkum Kai (1984) and Pillai Nila (1985). Vijayalakshmi got her break as an independent cinematographer through K. Bhagyaraj's Chinna Veedu in 1985. The film made her Asia's first woman cinematographer, who has worked in over 22 feature films and she has also worked on many Television series. She worked as an interior designer before entering into films. In 1995, she made her directorial debut through Paattu Padava for which she also wrote the script and handled the cinematography. The film was screened at the International Film Festival of India in 1996 and it was well known for the songs tuned by Ilaiyaraaja. Vijayalakshmi is married to Sunil Kumar, a sound recordist and has a son with him. Post marriage she left films and entered television. "Vasantham Colony" her first attempt at TV was a children's serial. Her other prominent television series are Maya Machindra (Vijay TV) and Velan (Sun TV).