K. R. Vijaya is a popular Indian actress who has performed in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam language films. She started her career in 1960s. She has acted for more than four decades in South Indian cinema. K. R. Vijaya has worked with almost all the stalwarts of South Indian cinema, and played a variety of roles.

Vijaya was born on 30 November 1948. She spent most of her childhood in the holy city of Palani. Vijaya's father wanted her to become an actress since he was himself acting in M. R. Radha's drama troupe at the time.

K. R. Vijaya used to dance and act on stage. Television had only just come then, so they showed her performances on a television placed in a corner of the stage. Once, when she was dancing in Chennai, actor Gemini Ganesan, who was watching, enjoyed her performance and said that she had a good chance of becoming famous film star, and he was right.

K. R. Vijaya has starred in many films. Her first film was Karpagam in 1963, where she portrayed the title role, Karpagam. The movie went well and she was also praised for her role. Apart from films, she has also starred in two teleserials, Raja Rajeswari and Kudumbam, shown both in India and Sri Lanka.

In 1973, she received the title "Punnagai Arasi", meaning in Tamil, Queen Of Smiles. Her smile was well known when she acted, and her fame is partly achieved with that. She thanks her dentist Dr.Janakiraman for her smile.

Her films in South Indian languages make a grand total of almost 400. She has done 100 in Malayalam, 100 in Telugu, 6 in Kannada, 1 in Hindi, and about 193 in Tamil. The Hindi film was titled, "Oonche Log", and her co-stars were Raaj Kumar and Feroz Khan. She received more offers in Hindi, but declined, for she was busy in the South.

She maybe an actress, but she is a fan too. She likes the films of Sivaji Ganesan,M. G. Ramachandran, Jai Shankar, R. Muthuraman, Padmini, Vyjayanthimala, Saroja Devi and Savithri