Indian Actress Diary

Radha without blouse

2007-08-26T04:51:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Radha in sexy bedroom scene

2007-08-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

By the end of eighties, Radha had almost completed a decade of complete dominance in the South. But still, the tag of a good actress still evaded her and though she came up with some spirited performances in movies like Engeyo Ketta Kural, still she was labeled as a glamour doll. That was a time when actress like Archana, Revathy and Suhasini were getting national recognition for their acting and Radha too longed for some recognition of her talent. Her immense acting talent was never really tested. Yet again , the break came from her mentor Bharathiraja. When Muthal Mariyathai project was started, it was widely spoken that two giants , a giant actor and a giant director , were coming together and it was going to be a real challenge for the heroine. Many were considered and dropped. And finally Radha was chosen because of just three points:
1. Her village girl type looks
2. Her close association with Barathiraja
3. Her boldness to act without a blouse throughout the movie.

Yes, it was very ironical that she never got the role for her acting skills. Even Sivaji was hesitant to co-star Radha because at that time , Radha and Prabu were quite a hot pair. With Prabu too, Radha followed her usual technique. There was a time when Prabu was quite close to Ambika and he never starred any movie with Radha. He was quite happy with the elder sister . And in Vellai Roja , a Sivaji-Prabu starrer , Ambika was chosen as the heroine for Prabu without any second thoughts. When they were considering an actress to play Prabu’s sister, a very minor role, as usual Tamil industry regular sisters like Sumathy, Rajalakshmi were considered. Because Ambika was already in the project, Radha came to know of this minor role and she immediately approached the director. She not only bagged the role but also convinced them to give her a duet opposite Suresh. She played a very erotic seduction scene with Suresh and purposely exposed a lot In the movie, She appears wrapping her body in just a towel and she shed that too in the scene where she makes love with Suresh before getting married. It was taboo in those days for a mainstream heroine to act in such scene in those days but Radha played such scenes with aplomb. Though the original script never had a duet and the bedroom scene in the script was not as erotic as it was finally filmed, it was still a mystery how Radha convinced director Rajasekar to make changes in his script. The movie also features some glamourous songs featuring Ambika and Silk Smitha but still Radha stole the limelight with her song “Solai Poovil Aadum Thendral”.

Radha & Rajini

2007-08-26T03:49:00.000-07:00

With Kamal casting her, Rajini was not far behind and Payum Puli, the AVM starrer , made her the heroine of Superstar Rajini.

Rajini & Radha made a great screen pair and the duo acted in many movies like Nan Mahan Alla, Sivappu Suriyan, Engeyo Ketta Kural etc and Radha last co-starred with him in the mega musical hit Rajathi Raja produced by the Maestro Ilayaraja. At that time there was an adage in Kodambakkam that all you need to give a hit was to book Rajini, Radha and Silk and get Raja to give some great scores. You’ve got a hit in your hands. The versatile producers AVM exploited this success formula to the core. Her great association with Rajini ended on a very unfortunate note even though their last movie together , Rajadhi Raja was a super duper hit. It is said that Radha repeatedly came late to the sets much to the annoyance of Rajini and Nadia who was an upcoming star then. At one point, Rajini could not stand it any more and he openly said to her in the sets that this would be their last movie together. Though Rajini had a special place for Radha amongst his heroines, when it came to work, he was a stickler to discipline and he found Radha’s late comings as an insult to his prestige. Anyway, Rajadhi Raja and the fiasco happened much later and between Payum Puli and Rajadhi Raja , Radha was the uncrowned queen of Kollywood and only one could even challenge her supremacy. And the challenger was from her own sibling, Ambika.

While Tamil industry took its own time to accept Radha , Tollywood was an entirely different story. One rain song with Chiranjeevi was enough to catapult her instantly as the top star. Radha costarred almost all the leading stars of Telugu in that period including Balakrishna, Krishna, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh. Ofcourse, she too followed the golden rule of most of the heroines and when it came to telugu movies she exposed significantly more than Tamil movies. The cleavages were deeper and the sari waist lines were lower.

Despite not having any training in classical dancing, Radha was a natural dancer and her graceful dance movements with erotic expressions were a treat to watch in all the song sequences that she featured. In telugu, though she did not have her sister Ambika to contend with, she had to face some serious competition from Vijayshanti. And Sridevi too dropped down once in a while from Mumbai to steal a hit or two. Despite this , Radha managed to act in the most number of movies opposite big heroes amongst the three. It was only in her fag end of her career that Vijayshanti overtook her as the Number of Heroine.

Kamal & Radha

2007-08-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Radha had just one scene to stamp her mark in the movie and this was a scene where she poses as a model to photographer Kamal. The scene where she comes in a tight outfit that grips her and reveals her lissome structure was extremely hot. Radha, with her provocative postures added spice to the already hot scene. Thus she proved that despite getting the most insignificant role, she could still have her fans spell bound with just a sceneDespite the rumours and scandals, Radha’s ascent in the tamil industry was inevitable. While Tik Tik Tik did Radha some good by taking her into big budget movies, it actually had a more significant role in her career. This movie brought her in touch with Kamalhasan, and the duo instantly struck a chord. She starred in a number of Kamal movies like Oru kaithiyin diary, Thoongathey Thambi Thoongathey, Kathal Parisu and many of them were super duper hits.

It was widely rumoured then that Kamal had a gala time with both the Kerala sisters though , it was well known that he preferred the elder one Ambika more and cast her more frequently in his movies.

A vital break

2007-08-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

After a string of low budget movies where she co-stared the second line heroes of tamil industry like Mohan and Suresh, she was starting to get noticed. And , Gopurangal Saivathillai, despite having the usual glamour song of Radha ( Poovadaikatru), proved that she could act. She played a powerful role as a second wife of Mohan and matched the national award winner Suhasini ( who played the first wife) in this movie. People were convinced that this lithe star from Kerala can act. But it looked like Radha would have to content herself with low budget movies and second rung heroes. The vital break was again given by none other than her mentor and guru Bharathiraja . Radha was called in to play a role in Tik Tik Tik, a Kamalhasan starrer. For the first time Radha was playing a role in a big budget movie. Though she did not play the heroine in the movie, nevertheless, Radha’s performance in Tik Tik Tik was memorable. She played one of the three beauty pageants in this movie. The other two were Madhavi and Swapna. While Madhavi played the heroine and got some memorable duets with Kamal ( Poo malarthida ) and Swapna as the singer , got some great solo songs, like (Netru intha Neram rendered sweetly by Latha Rajinikant), Radha was left to feature in just one song and there too she had to share it with Madhavi and Swapna. All three appeared in swimsuit in this song “Athu Oru Nila Kalam” creating quiet a sensation in those days.

Radha - The intial scandals

2007-08-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Radha had the typical advantage that most keralite girls was gifted with.She had a voluptuous body that bulged in the right places. When she acted in Alaigal Oyvathillai, she was hardly seventeen. But she had a bust that belied her age. Her thighs too were well shaped and she flaunted it many of her movies. She appeared in swimsuit in her very first Tamil movie and she continued this trend in a number of movies like Tik, Tik, Tik , Jappanil kalyanaraman etc. She was also one of the pioneers in exposing navel in sarees and most of the time the waistline of her sari was below navel.

Radha was also gifted with an innocent looking childish face but at the same time she was equally known for her sexy expressions. The twist of the lips that she gives very erotically was also fully used by her directors. Needless to say, soon radha became a darling of the masses and she was soon acting alongside heroes like Mohan, Suresh etc.

The rumours regarding Radha started in her very first movie. She and her co-star were supposedly in love and a kollywood story broke out that they were even planning to elope. It was also shown that both Muthuraman ( karthik's father) and Valasaramma ( Radha's Mother) were not in favour of their love. While the press was rumouring about Radha's love life, Kodambakkam's inner circle had already started coming out with a really wild and unbelievable rumour regarding the sex life of the famous director who had introduced her. It was rumoured that though this director used to take great love stories on big screen, he was also known for making porn movies of all his leading ladies. Though this rumour is not proved till date, yet many in those days who worked in kodambakkam believed that the director secretly filmed a porn movie of all his heroines and used it as an effective to tool to control his heroines as that worked better than any written agreement. It was rumoured that Radha was also part of that. However , no concrete evidence for this porn rumour till date.

Thus radha had arrived and along with her, lots of scandals too.......

The Kerala Sisters

2007-08-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

The South Film industry was just wondering where the next star would come from. Sridevi, the omnipresent star of South with complete dominance in both Tamil & Telugu, was just then exploring her waters in Bollywood. Tamil industry had ofcourse the likes of Sripriya, Radika and Madhavi but then they too were fast waning stars. And just when the industry was getting desperate to have someone who could stand upto the supreme screen prescence of Rajini and kamal, two sisters were creating ripples in kerala. And the ripples were mild. Too mild. Because , kerala was almost aloof from the commercial ventrues of the rest of the South. But the sisters had placed their first tenattice foot and slowly and steadily, the rest of South started taking notice. And the eminent star spotter Bharathiraja was the first one to spot the star in a young mallu teenager. And he took her in his movie Alaigal Oyvathillai and promptly named her Radha, ofcourse in line with his R series heroines. The series by itself was quite legendary with Radika, Revathy were all part of it.

The junior sister was the first to place her foot in Tamil industry. Aliagal Oyvathillai released in 1981. The young heroine, the teenage mallu took everyone by storm in her very first movie. Her expressive eyes, the bubbly cheeks, the round and innocent face, the boldness to expose and not so bad acting skills all at once drew attention. When the movie was made, there was just talk of the young hero Karthik, the eminent actor Muthuraman's son , who was making his debut. it was a movie of Bharathiraja to launch karthik. But when the movie released radha drew as much attention as Karthik, if not more.