“I was the third ‘unwanted’ girl child in Paramakudi, a small Tamil Nadu town. It was the 1960s; everyone came and paid their condolences to my parents,” she said chuckling. Everyone stared in awe as she spoke; over the last four decades, she has made her mark in the four South Indian film industries — both in front of the camera and behind. As Suhasini Maniratnam jovially conversed with Mohammed Ali Baig at Suhasini Maniratnam with Cinematics — part of the Remembering Razia Baig series organised by the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation — we were captivated in every sense.
“But my parents didn’t look at me like the others did,” she told CE in a candid interview after the event. “Women empowerment starts at home. My mother raised me to be independent and my father was progressive. He was the one who encouraged me to become an actress. I have been very lucky,” expressed Suhasini, who is part of the illustrious Haasan family and is married to director Mani Ratnam.
But for Suhasini, riches have never been the first attraction. Instead, service and empathy are of utmost importance, which is why she set up the Naam Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on empowering single women from underprivileged backgrounds. She says, “When you’ve ‘made it’ in life, you need to help others too.”
Suhasini has definitely ‘made it’ — but her entry into the world of films was accidental. Her father, Charuhasan, doted on his third daughter; one day, he wanted to teach her some karate. “But in the process, I held him and pulled him down. His spine got injured. My abandon (grandmother), who had moved to Chennai to live with her younger son and budding actor Kamal, decided that from then on, I would live with them.”
It was Kamal Haasan who took care of his niece when she was in Chennai, buying her clothes, braiding her hair, and even putting her in charge of answering phone calls from his fangirls! With his encouragement, she became the first woman to graduate from the Madras Film Institute, and began her career as a technician on the sets. “But when another actress stepped back from a project, the director spotted me. Though a part of me was happy that they wanted me in front of the camera, my victory as the first woman technician had come crumbling down. But my father gave the nod to me being an actress,” she says. And the rest, as they say, is history.
But the southern industries, she admits, are different from each other. “Mollywood (Malayalam) was all about being realistic and raw. Actors were left by themselves to improvise there, but in Kollywood (Tamil) and Tollywood, directors generally showed the way.” But was she ever nervous in front of the camera? “Once you make the decision to act, every scene is important. Good directors always start with the easy scenes, so I wasn’t nervous. Even when I donned the director’s hat, I made the lead actress just wear the costume and come on set for two days… just to get her used to it,” recalls Suhasini.
Speaking of costumes, Suhasini herself is quite the Instagram fashion icon today, always draped in the most graceful — and sometimes edgy — sarees. At the event, she wore an absolutely beautiful grey and yellow sareemaking one wonder how those two colours went so well together. “Though I grew up in a small town where there was no real exposure to fashion, I was very interested in fashion as a teenager. I had a doll named Susheela; I used to watch movies, sew dresses inspired by on-screen fashion, and put them on her. I suppose in another dimension, I could’ve been a couture designer,” she notes, adding that Kamal’s ex-wife, Vani Ganapathy, has always been her go-to when it comes to fashion. “Even today, I call her when I’m unsure about which saree to wear, which blouse to pair it with, and so on,” she says laughing.
But does she ever regret not treading the technical path? She chuckles and reveals, “Whenever I meet cinematographers, they make me feel miserable. In fact, playwright Girish Karnad once told me, ‘You should be directing, why are you acting?’”
Now, Suhasini isn’t one to pepper herself with praises. Rather, she proudly takes the names of contemporaries and juniors who have made it big: “In Tollywood, I’ve been a big fan of Jayasudha from the very beginning. I admired Jaya Prada for her beauty and Sridevi for her sheer stardom. Today, I think Sai Pallavi is excellent. Aishwarya Rajesh, too, as I really like realistic actors. I also appreciate how Tamannaah started speaking her own lines in Telugu. And Keerthy Suresh, despite being half Malayalee and half Tamilian, has truly made her mark in Tollywood.”
Suhasini has two points of advice for young actresses and female directors: “One: You’re here on a mission, so the better you work, the better results you will get. Two: Don’t get perturbed by small things, and instead see the big picture. The goal is most important.”
One would think that an individual of her calibre ought to have some airs. But Suhasini is a rebel in every sense, even defeating this notion when she states: “I’ve been unbelievably lucky. My career choices were accepted, and I’ve had a wonderful journey. In fact, I learned about emotions from the characters I played on screen. I can’t be erratic because my roles were never erratic. One of the biggest lessons cinema has taught me is to accept life as it is.”
One word to describe…
Mani ratnam: Genius
Kamal haasan: Super-genius
Shruti Haasan: Multi-talented
Akshara haasan: Pure
