INTERVIEW WITH RAADHIKA SARATHKUMAR

Starting her career in the year 1978, with Kizhake Pogum Rayil, which was a huge hit, actress Raadhika Sarathkumar has come a long way. She is currently playing the title role of the hugely popular television serial Chitti, which she is also producing

In her long film career, Raadhika went on to act with leading actors, like Rajnikanth, Kamalhaasan, Prabhu, Satyaraj, Vijaykanth, etc. She has more than 230 films to her credit spanning five languages -Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. And she has worked with almost every big banner in the South.

At the peak of her movie career Raadhika gave it all up and decided to get into television. Denying rumours of 'Chitti' getting over soon, Raadhika shares her views on Chitti, Radaan (her own production house) and the Tamil Film Industry.

No, it is not. Suddenly people started saying that Chitti is getting over…but actually it is not. All the other channels picked up this somewhere and started targeting this time slot.

Every time I took a slot in Sun TV... it was a dead time that was given to me. The time that was given to me for Chinna Paapa Peria Paapa, was not even a happening slot. But then it worked for me. Even when Chitti came on, it was a dead time, even my marketing people asked me why I took up that time. Anyway I took it up and today it is one of the most popular serials on television. So it is not the time slot, but the product that makes the difference at the end of the day.

Bhaskar (Chitti's Director and Story Writer) has a habit of taking a part of our personality and putting it into a role. He has taken so much of me, the way I talk, the way I move and certain beliefs that I have and he has put it into the role. The story of course is fiction. If you look at every other character in Chitti, you can see each individual's nuances, which has been picked up and moulded into the role.

In Chitti, everyone has a well-defined role, which is not very common in television software. And it has got a strong story base...that is what we have taken from Chitti, we have not taken Raadhika or Sivakumar...we have just taken their roles, the characterisation and the script.

You just have to have the right mix of everything. There is no one ingredient. You have to have the right story and the right cast. Again I will put it to teamwork.

I owe Chitti's success to its team. This is teamwork. I wouldn't say I contributed to the whole thing or something like that. This is what we believe in. It is our company's teamwork.

I always believed in quality, that was what I learnt from films. When I first came in, and looked at the serials on offer, I felt nobody was really giving quality.  I guess my film background helped when it comes to giving good quality.

When I had my daughter, I was finding it difficult to travel around or to go out of town. I wanted to be at home and television was just an extension of my profession. A lot of  people dissuaded me saying, you are a big screen actress and you should not get into this. But I did it when I was at my peak...when I was really doing a lot of movies, I started my company. And I did a lot of programmes. But then I could not manage it for some reason. There were a lot of people cheating me. Then I shut it down...took stock of the situation, revamped it and opened again. It is an extension of my profession. I am in control...I am doing my own thing. I am not doing things just for the sake of pleasing somebody or because somebody requests me to do a film and just because he is my friend I have to do this horrible film. I do not have such a situation any more.

Yes, it is more systematic. And television is a good medium. You can have so much of variety in terms of programming. Corporatisation just makes it easier to work, as things are more organised...which is something I believe in. And you have to move forward in the way you work. I do not believe that you have to be stuck to age-old methods. I do not believe that 'andha kalathiley' (in those days), they made films like this...so we also have to do it the same way. I never believed in it from those days.

We are just growing. In the last two years television has really taken off. There is still so much we can do. There is no limitation when it comes to possibilities. But we still have a long way to go.

I look at the benefit of the company at the end of the day. Apart from mega serials we are also planning to get into educational software, we are planning a lot of things, which will happen over a period of time.

My director when he first cast me never knew that I was M R Ratha's daughter. He just saw me and he cast me. But when he subsequently came to know that I was M R Ratha's daughter, he got a little worried. There is no advantage or disadvantage. I guess only the person in you can bring out your own individuality. Finally you have to go out there and do the work. People used to say, oh! you are M R Ratha's daughter, no wonder you are so talented...or no wonder you are so bold. That is the only comparison I have heard so far.

It has changed so much. There are many new people and new thoughts. How successful they are of course is a different question. But I think people in the industry should remember whom they are catering to. It has all become too futuristic and hi tech, which I feel the common people cannot really relate to. End of the day we have to keep in mind, who is going to watch our films. We have got very good technicians and musicians. I feel we should get younger stars coming in. Especially heroines, there are no heroines in Tamil cinema right now.

It is tough, juggling everything. It takes a lot of grit. But you keep going. And the rewards are satisfying.

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