Jayalatha has been in the field of Isai Natakam or 'Special Drama' for over thirty years now. She started acting when she was 11 years old. She hails from a family of theatre artistes. Her father was her first Guru. For a long time, she was performing stree parts, until she was forced to face a crisis in her career. Tharkkam or debate is a main feature of Isai Natakam and that is the section which is left to improvisation of the artistes. She was far superior than most others in this field as she was interested in reading and constantly updated her knowledge in literature and philosophy. She therefore became a challenge to those who played male roles against her. They refused to take her as a partner. In order to survive she started from scratch all over again and became an expert in male roles as well. Now, she does both Raja parts and Stree parts.

Isai Natakam:
This is a genre of performance which came into vogue with the advent of colonial proscenium stage and parsi theatre groups which traveled all over the country. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the genre was quite rooted in Tamilnadu. Sankara Das Swamigal pioneered the genre and wrote over sixty texts for performance. He also established the tradition of what he called 'boys company' where young boys were recruited and trained. Most of the stories performed were puranic. It was mainly musical. This genre is also known as 'special drama' in common parlance since it has a unique way of organisation. Each town has a sangam where the artistes have to register as members. When anyone wants a show, they book the performance through the sangams. Of course, the sponsors can give their own list of favourite artistes they need in their show. The sangam would write the date and venue of the show in the calender of the respective artistes, who assemble on the day of the show and perform without any prior rehearsal or working together. Since all the artistes are trained in the genre, know the story line and songs, the play takes shape as it progresses.