Saritha is a South Indian actress. She has acted more than 140 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu languages and was in a television serial Selvi in 2005. Her mainstream career spanned from 1978 to 1989.
Explaining why her dark complexion and full figure worked in her favor: "Looking back, I'm very happy and thankful to the directors to have come up with scripts that were performance-oriented. Nowadays, heroes dominate films. Perhaps, if I looked glamorous, directors would have concentrated on my looks than on my performance."
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On director K.Balachander who discovered her: "I've worked in 23 films of his - each was a milestone. KB is like a godfather. I grew up under his banner. I didn't know anything about acting, it was he who taught me the nuances."
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Fact
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Even though she hails from a Telugu-speaking family and her big break came playing a Telugu girl in the blockbuster Telugu film Maro Charithra (1978), she was actually born and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where Tamil is the primary language, thus most of her subsequent films and television serials were in Tamil.
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She is fluent in several languages, including Telugu (her mother tongue), Tamil, and English.
She won Tamil Nadu Government's Best Actress Award three times- 1979-1980, 1982-1983 and 1988. She is also the recipient of Kalaimamani Award in 1982-1983 for the film "Agnisakshi."
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She has acted in all four South Indian languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam.
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She claimed that she almost got fired on her first day on the set of "Marocharithra," as nobody was happy with her performance. Later, she was briefed on her role, and director K. Balachander was so happy with her performance that he rewarded her with chocolates.
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Of the 141 films she has done till 2006, she claims that her three best films are: `Marocharithra," "Thanneer Thanneer" and "Agnisakshi."
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"Julie Ganapathy" is the Tamil remake of the Hollywood hit film, Misery (1990), and Saritha put on a lot of weight to play the role that was originated by the Oscar winner, Kathy Bates. But when the film bombed and she didn't win any awards, she decided to lose the weight in order to get acting work.
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Saritha was discovered by the famous director K. Balachander who cast her in the heroine role for the Telugu film "Marocharithra" (1979) opposite Kamal Hassan, which became a huge, memorable hit.
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She was the 162nd girl who auditioned for the heroine role in "Marocharithra" (1979), when director K. Balachander decided she was the right actress for him.
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Director K. Balachander so liked her performance in "Marocharithra" (1979) that he cast her in 22 more films, including "Agni Satchi," "Kalyana Agathigal," and "Achamillai Achamillai."
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After acting in films from 1979 to 1989, she took a long break to get married and raise two sons, but she still worked in films by dubbing voices.
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She has acted in 140 feature films, and also in a television serial, "Selvi." (2005).
$700,000
