Potpourri of titbits about Tamil cinema

My marriage with Sri Harsha, an engineer in Germany was celebrated on 1-3-1967. We hosted a reception on the 5th in Chennai. The entire film industry attended the marriage. My mother told me to stop acting after marriage. But my husband said that nobody should waste away their talents and asked me to continue my career. All my films after marriage hit the box-office. Harsha died on 21-4-1986 due to heart attack. I left acting for eight years after his demise. Then I resumed acting due to the pressure of my well wishers. My latest movie is ‘Aadhavan’, directed by K. S. Ravikumar. My son Ramachandran is looking after administration while my daughter Indra is in US. Now, I am engaged in public service. I had acted in around 200 films including all the southern languages. I look at MGR as my God,” Sarojadevi said with tears of joy and gratitude in her eyes.

T. R. Rajakumari

Rajakumari was introduced in ‘Kacha Devyani’ by director K. Subramaniam, the Father of Tamil cinema. She became the dream girl of cine-goers thanks to her attractive eyes, voluptuous figure and beautiful accent. Her film with Thyagaraja bhagawadar ‘Haridas’ ran for three consecutive years at the Broadway Theatre in Madras. She had acted with great heroes like P. U. Chinnappa, T. R. Mahalingam, Honnappa Bhagawadar, MGR and Sivaji Ganesan. But suddenly she stopped acting. She remained a spinster till end as she worked hard for her family. She died in the year 1999, plunging all the people in the industry and her fans into eternal sorrow.