‘My Mother, T Krishna Kumari’is a story of a superstar, who at the pinnacle of her career, chose to give up the fame, the glamour and the arclights and settle for a completely new way of life in a farm on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Through a rare collection of photographs, posters, anecdotes and first person accounts, the author brings out the persona of Krishna Kumari far beyond what is known to the public. For instance, who would know that the rangapravesham(first dance recital) of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was at Krishna Kumari’s house-warming dinner! Or that yesteryear’s star Nutan sang playback for Krishna Kumari. Krishna Kumari returned to stardom to do character roles at a time Sridevi and Jayaprada were beginning to be noticed. In the book, Sridevi remises, “I was a child when I worked with her (Krishna Kumari), and she was a big star. And I remember feeling that a princess had entered the room when she came onto the sets”. At the peak of her career, from the 1950s to the 1970s, Krishna Kumari worked with several icons like NT Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageswara Rao. Despite acting in 150 Telugu films, she didn’t restrict her talent to one language or genre. In fact she acted in over 30 Tamil and Kannada films and co-stared with legends including Sivaji Ganesan and Dr Rajkumar. Her repertoire wonher fans and accolades across states, including the President’s Award. The book has been designed by Farah Avasarala, while award winning food photographer Sanjay Ramchandranis the man behind the camera lens. Krishna Kumari’s favourite recipes have been curated by hospitality specialist Aslam Gafoor. Maiya Publishing will also contribute 35% percent of the sale profit of each book to ‘Dream a Dream’, a high impact charity that empowers youth from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity using creative life skills. We hope our effort will go a long way in contributing to Dream and Dream’s inspiring work.