Supreme Star Sarath Kumar

FOCUS ON
SUCCESS
SARATH KUMAR IS MAKING HIS DEBUT IN THE MAMMOOTTY-STARRER MALAYALAM PERIOD FILM PAZHASSI RAJA AND KANIKA IS TRYING HER LUCK AFTER THE FLOP OF ENNITTUM, SAYS KK MOIDU

Superstar Sarath Kumar
plays an important role in
Pazhassi Raja as Edacheni
Kunkan, a best friend and
the commander-in-chief of
Pazhassi Raja played by
Mammootty. Kunkan is a symbol of
masculinity and to portray the role
needs good physique along with a
star image.
Suresh Gopi was the first choice
for Edacheni Kunkan but he refused
the offer. The reason for choosing
him for the role was becasue he did
well earlier in the role of Aromal
Chekavar in the MT Vasudevan
Nair-Hariharan-Mammootty team
epic film Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha.
Suresh Gopi refused the role of
Edacheni Kunkan because director
Lenin Rajendran has earlier planned
to make Pazhassi Raja with him in
the title role. But Suresh Gopi’s
career was on a lean patch at that
time and no producer’s were ready to
take a risk by making a big budget
film with Suresh Gopi.
Suresh Gopi regained his status in
the industry by making a strong
comeback in Bharath Chandran IPS.
Before his success, MT-Hariharan-
Mammootty team declared their new
project Pazhassi Raja.
But Lenin and Suresh Gopi is trying
to compensate their loss in
Pazhassi Raja by announcing a new
project Raja Ravi Varma. The difference
in the role is that instead of a
gun or sword in his hand, Suresh
Gopi will appear in the screen with a
painting brush. Earlier the duo had
created Kulam, which was noticed
for its artistic value.
The replacement of Suresh Gopi
by Sarath Kumar in Pazhassi Raja
became a blessing for the creator’s of
the film. Sarath Kumar is not only a
good actor but also has an athletic
body and everybody will like to
watch him in Kunkan’s role.
Pazhassi Raja is being made with
a big budget which the Malayalam
film industry cannot afford. Although
Mammootty is a favourite star for
Malayalees and he is popular in
Tamil Nadu, it will not be enough for
the success of the film. It has to run
in packed houses not only in Kerala
but also in Tamil Nadu. The valued
presence of Sarath Kumar will help
the film to attract more crowds in
neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Ramanathan Sarathkumar was
born in New Delhi on July 14, 1954
in an affluent family as the son of late
M Ramanathan and Pushpaleela. His
native place is Thalakavur in
Sivaganga district near Karaikudi.
Sarathkumar completed his schooling
from New Delhi. He did his PUC
from Loyola College, Chennai and
passed BSc in Maths from New
College in Chennai.
In the long span of two-and-a-half
decades, he served the industry as a
actor, producer and distributor. He
has acted in more than 100 films and
did few Telugu films. Super hero
Sarathkumar has a good reputation
in the Tamil film industry and he is
the president of South Indian Film
Artistes Association. He also tried his
luck in politics and was a former
Rajyasabha MP of DMK from Tamil
Nadu.
Sarath Kumar started his film
career as a villain and did second
hero roles in many films in the beginning.
His career’s turning point came
after he played a heroic role in KS
Ravikumar’s super hit Cheran
Pandiyan.
After the success of the film, the
duo created many box office hits like
Naattamai. He became a leading
hero in Tamil film in the late 90’s. In
most of the films he appeared, he
played an honest cop where his duty
was to cleanse the corrupt system of
the society.
Sarath Kumar has delivered many
hit movies like Suriyan, Ayya,
Maayavi, Natpukkaaga, Naattamai,
Suryavamsam, Thenkasippattanam,
Vedan, Samudhiram etc. He directed
and played the lead role as a journalist
in his 100th film Thalaimakan
with leading lady Nayanthara. His
forthcoming Tamil film
Vaitheeswaran is directed by MK
Maheshwar and produced by
Annamali films.
Sarath Kumar won several
awards in his career like the
Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan Award
2000-2001, Best Actor Awards 1992,
1994, 1995, 1996 and 1998, MGR
Award in 1997 and won the best villain
award of 1990 for the film Pulan
Visaranai.
Being a super hero in Tamil films,
Sarath Kumar didn’t hesitate to
accept a Malayalam film where
Mammootty plays the lead role as
Pazhassi Raja. He believes Pazhassi
Raja will be magic on celluloid
because it is scripted by the doyen of
Malayalam literature MTVasudevan
Nair and directed by veteran
Hariharan. They were experts in reinterpreting
history and created
records by making heroes into villains
and vice versa in their earlier
films like Vadakkan Veeragadha.
The movie was a milestone in the
history of Malayalam cinema.
Mammootty played the lead in
Vadakkan Veeragatha and he fetched
the National Best Actor Award for
his portrayal of Chanthu.
MT, Hariharan and Mammootty
trio are back after 18 years with
Pazhassi Raja. Kerala Varma
Pazhassi Raja also known as the
“Lion of Kerala” of the Padinjare
Kovilakom of the Kottayam Royal
family was one of the first voices
raised against the British rule in
India. During the last decades of the
18th century, Pazhassi Raja irked the
British East India Company in
Malabar.
The 1857 Sepoy Mutiny is considered
as the first organised revolt
against British rule in India and it is
also known as India’s first struggle
for independence. But half a century
before the Sepoy Mutiny, Pazhassi
Raja achieved the title Veera (brave)
by encaging a guerrilla war against
the British occupation with the help
of tribes.
Pazhassi Raja opposed the British
colonialists for their unjustifiable
revenue policy of British East India
Company in Malabar. Raja stopped
revenue collections and threatened
to cut down all the pepper vines if the
company persisted with the revenue
collection.
The British made a futile attempt
to capture Pazhassi Raja in his palace
at Pazhassi in April 1796. Aproclamation
was issued to people — if
they support Raja their property will
be confiscated. Raja’s people strike
back in 1797 and started a daring
attack on the security personnel at
Pazhassi.
More than three days of the war,
Raja’s people used swords, spears,
bows, arrows and attacked the musket
armed British forces. The British
compelled to sign a temporary treaty.
When the British broke the conditions
of the treaty, Raja revolted
but the British had most of the South
under their control. Raja with his
wife and trusted attendants took
refugee in the jungles. In 1804, the
property of Raja was confiscated and
proclaimed a reward for the head of
Raja and in 1805, Raja was killed.
Kanika plays an important role as
the wife of Pazhassi Raja. She is
making her comeback after the miserable
flop of her debut Malayalam
film Ennittum directed by Ranjith
Lal.
Kanika was born in July 3, 1982
as Divya Venketasubramanian in
Chennai. She is the second daughter
to the engineer parents Mr and Mrs
Venkat Subramanian. She is known
as Kanika in Tamil and Malayalam
and Shravanthi in Telugu and
Kannada. She completed her schooling
from the reputed TVS Lakshmi
Matriculation Higher Secondary
School, Madurai.
Kanika is an engineering graduate
from the highly renowned BITS
Pilani and completed two films
before her graduation.
The film industry is an unusual
place for a BITS Pilani engineering
graduate, but she chose her career as
a full time artist and has acted in
Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada
movies. She also tried her luck in
playback singing, dubbing and
anchoring TV shows in her short
career.
Kanika has dubbed for Sada in
the superhit Anniyan and for Shriya
Saran in the latest Rajnikanth starrer
megahit Sivaji The Boss.
She has acted in one dozen films
in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and
Malayalam. Her movies were
notable as Five star was produced by
Mani Rathnam, Varalaru was directed
by KS Ravikumar and Autograph
was directed and produced by senior
actor Cheran.
Kanika was crowned Miss
Madurai in 1999 and was second
runner-up in Miss Chennai in 2001.
Director Susi Ganesan spotted her
and cast her in the lead role of his
dream film Five Star.
Kanika knew her priorities and
raised the eyebrow’s of people by
rejecting offers from veteran directors
like Shankar, Cheran etc to continue
her studies. During her vacation
she made her debut in the Telugu
film Ottessi Chepputunna.
After her graduation she made her
debut in the Kannada film Annavaru,
a remake of the Tamil film
Thalapathi. She also played a small
role in Autograph and won critical
acclaim.
Kanika also played the heroine
role in Dancer opposite Kutty. No
other heroines were not ready to play
the heroine of the one-leg wonder
Kutty; she not only accepted the
offer but also did a neat job. She
played the heroine role in the
Kannada film Sye, a remake of the
Tamil film Dhill.
Kanika’s second appearance in
Malayalam is with a success guaranteed
project and it will give a boost
to her Malayalam career.
Linda Arsenio of Kabul Express
fame plays a British woman in the
film and Padmapriya appears as a
tribal for the first time in her career.
Other artistes of the films are
Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathi
Sreekumar, Captain Raju, Lalu Alex,
Manoj K Jayan, Biju Menon,
Kalabhavan Mani, Suresh Krishna,
Subair, Siddique, Roshan,
Manikuttan, Urmila Unni, Valsala
Menon and Nikhila.
Music maestro Ilayaraja pens the
lyrics of ONV Kurup and Venu handles
the cinematography.
Pazhassi Raja is being shot with
a Pan Vision camera and exploits the
latest technical achievements is the
most expensive Malayalam film. It
is produced by Gokulam Gopalan.
The creators also promise that their
film Pazhassi Raja will be different
from the 1964 movie of the valiant
king Pazhassi Raja directed by
Kunjacko.