Jayamala has acted in several movies mainly in
Kannada. Jayamala was the most glamorous heroine of Kannada cinema during the early 1980s. She started her career as a
Rajkumar heroine and after a string of successful movies with him went on to star opposite all the top heroes of Sandalwood, With
Anant Nag, she has acted in romantic movies as
Janma Janmada Anubandha and
Premave Baalina Belaku. With
Vishnuvardhan, she starred in multi-starrer pot-boilers like
Hanthakana Sanchu,
Naga Kala Bhairava and
Sididedda Sahodara. Her pairing with
Ambareesh, started with the cult classic
Antha where she played the tragic role of a cabaret dancer who is his sister and then went on to become his heroine in several movies like
Ajith,
Prema Matsara and
Khadeema Kallaru. Her pairing with
Shankar Nag in many movies also proved successful, including the heroine-oriented
Chandi Chamundi that made her a household name as an action heroine. Her last successful pairing was with
Prabhakar, (who incidentally had played her brother in
Chandi Chamundi) whom she married in 1985 after which she quit films. Interestingly Jayamala and top heroine
Aarathi costarred in nine films with Jayamala's glamour quotient complementing
Aarathi's simple-girl appeal. Her first production venture
Thaayi Saheba was directed by Girish Kasaravalli and won a National award. Jayamala received a special jury award for her performance in the film. Jayamala created history of sorts when she became the only actress in the Indian film industry to be conferred a doctorate for writing a thesis. Her thesis was on the rehabilitation of
rural woman in Karnataka and required her to tour Karnataka and also scrutinise several documents. The Doctorate was conferred by the
Bangalore University on 18 January 2008 and presented by former President
Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. ==Controversy==