Radha without blouse

It was rumoured that Sivaji was quiet annoyed with this when he came to know of the closeness of Radha and Prabhu. This was playing upon SIvaji’s mind when Radha was cast opposite to him. But the professional that Radha is, she convinced him of her earnestness to cast opposite to him and with very few days of shooting it was evident that they made a great screen pair. Muthal Mariyathai released in the year 1985 . The audio cassette released much earlier and the songs with introduction rendered by Vairamuthu, created quiet a stir and proved the supremacy of Raja in village folk. But shockingly, the film did not get a grand opening,. Infact , for the first two weeks, the response was very poor with the theatres not even managing 30 % occupancy. It was then that the producers had a close scrutiny oin their promotional strategy. Most of the promos featured Sivaji and they highlighted the name of Bharathiraja. It seemed that they were thinking that just Bahrathiraja directing Sivaji would bring in the crowds. But it did not. The promoters of Muthal Mariyathai changed tact. Alongside Sivaji , they added a still of a blouse less Radha showing her hips. The still where she carries two fish in her hands will be remembered by many even now. The promoters also leaked news to press that Radha had not worn any blouse or bra beneath her saree. That did the magic for the movie. People thronged to see their gamorous doll in this new sexy outfit. But what they ended up seeing was an immensely mature performance of their galamour doll in a story which brilliantly portrayed the ageless romance of an old man with a village belle. Ilayaraja’s songs, Sivaji’s master performance, Bharathiraja’s brilliant direction, Kannan’s camera were all appreciated even today. But it was Radha’s striking performance matching Sivaji that was a pleasant surprise of the movie. And needless to say, Radha pulled in the crowds and Muthal Mariathai remains till date as one of the greatest late-pickup hits in Tamil industry. After Muthal Mariyathai, nobody disputed the fact that Radha could get and she got a number of challenging roles including movies like Nyaya Tharasu.

Radha attracts Prabhu

Stealing the limelight in the movie was one thing. But her main motive was another. Prabu as usual maintained distance from her during the movie since either Sivaji or Ambika were always there.. But there was a schedule where Ambika’s prescence was not required. The schedule was for shooting scenes that mainly featuring Sivaji Ganesan (who played a Christian father) and Radha. The scenes were shot in a church in Ooty. And towards completion of the schedule, Sivaji’s scenes were over and he had to go back to Chennai to attend a function. The scene where Radha has to tell her brother Prabu that she was pregnant. Prabu slaps her in the scene. The scene took a full day to be shot and Radha would have been slapped atleast 20 times by Prabu. One of the slaps really landed hard and Prabu was repentant for that. Radha was very professional and never seemed to mind the slaps and they struck a chord right there. Prabu really admired how accommodative Radha was and their relationship continued for quiet a while and they starred together in a string of musical hits like Anand.