Indian Actress Meets Jesus in the Water

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Jayasudha Kapoor was born on December 17, 1958 as Sujatha  in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to a Telugu-speaking family. Her mother, Joga Bai, was an actress and her father's first cousin, Vijaya Nirmala, was a famous actress and director who was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 as the female director with the greatest number of films in the world. Jayasudha's paternal grandfather was an eminent scholar and literary historian, 

When Jayasudha was eight years old, her aunt, Vijaya Nirmala, would take her to the movie sets with her while she was acting. Jayasudha loved watching how movies were made, what the actresses wore, and how they did their makeup. She knew that was what she wanted to do with her life, but her father wasn’t convinced it was right for her. It would take her aunt’s persuasion and promise to look out for Jayasudha personally to get him to relent.  

At age 12, Jayasudha made her acting debut in the 1972 Telugu film, Pandanti Kapuram. Then, receiving critical acclaim for her performances in K. Balachander's Tamil films, Arangetram and Apoorva Raangalal, paved the way for lead roles. Jayasudha became a leading actress in Telugu cinema with the 1976 film, Jyothi, for which she won her first Nandi Award for Best Actress. Today, she has won several awards and has acted in over 350 films.

PERSONAL LIFE

In 1985 she married producer Nitin Kapoor (cousin of famous actor Jeetendra), with whom she had two sons, Nihar and Shreayan. In 2017, after 32 years of marriage, her husband lost his battle with bipolar depression and took his life. Jayasudha was devasted. She looked to her family and her faith for solace and comfort and she continues to raise awareness for depression. 

FINDING JESUS

In 1985, while on her honeymoon in Thailand with husband Nitin Kappor, they decided to go to the beach. Nitin participated in all the water activities and asked Jayasudha to join him. Due to her fear of water and never learning to swim, she declined. Near the end of the day, Nitin finally convinced her to go for a short ride on the jet ski. She reluctantly agreed. Not long after they took off, they hit a rough patch of water and she flew off the back, sinking to the bottom of the ocean. While drowning, Jayasudha thought her life was over. She explains, “In that moment, I could have cried out to any Hindu god but when I opened my mouth, the name of Jesus came out.”

When she opened her eyes, she saw gently flowing seaweed on her left and on her right, she saw sunbeams and Jesus was behind the sunbeams. When she saw the eyes of Jesus, a divine sense of peace overcame her as she rose to the surface to find her husband frantically searching for her. After that experience at 25 years old, she knew that Jesus was real. She accepted him as Lord, but she wasn’t ready to surrender fully. Jayasudha had a difficult time convincing her family of her conversion and asked Jesus to wait for her until she turned 50. Then, she would live for him.

In 2001, Jayasudha couldn’t wait any longer. She decided to risk it all and gave her life to Christ fully. While it took some time to convince her family to accept her conversion, they made peace with it and so did her fans. Several people have given their lives to Christ after hearing her testimony.