'Acting with him was never an effort'

K R Vijaya

K R Vijaya has been part of the South Indian film industry for the last 38 years. She was one of the heroines fortunate to act with Sivaji Ganesan in a number of films.

She reminisces about the good times they shared:

I had seen Sivaji’s films like Parasakthi, Pasamalar and Pava Mannippu as a young girl of ten. Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine then that I would, one day, be his leading lady.

My second film, Kai Kodutha Daivam,directed by K S Gopalakrishnan was with Sivaji; I played a Punjabi girl.

He was a big star by then but he did not act like one. I was not in awe of him as I had the experience of acting in several plays before I joined the film industry.

He was very helpful; he'd tell me to deliver dialogues effectively and convincingly.

In those days, there was no dubbing; all the dialogues were recorded on location. So, delivering the dialogue properly was very important. He did give me lots of useful tips on dialogue delivery, which was his forte.

It was in V K Ramaswamy’s Silvam that I first acted as his heroine. I still remember the first shot.

It was a song about my character's lover who is to return after his studies. My character looks for the plane that's bringing him home. The plane lands but there was no sign of him. Dejected, tears well up in her eyes. But he pops up, pleasantly surprising her.

Most of my scenes in Silvam were very dramatic and emotional.

When you are acting with him, you don't have to make an effort to act. When you saw his intense facial expressions, you automatically emoted well. You only had to look at him and react. So natural and genuine were his expressions.

Acting opposite him was a joy. Expressions and emotions flowed like a river when you worked with him.

Our second film together was a mythological called Saraswathi Sapatham.

It had a huge star cast: Sivaji Sir, Gemini Ganesh, Savithri Amma, Pappi Amma (Padmini), Devika, Siva Kumar, Nagesh and myself. We had great fun acting in the film.

Some of the memorable films that we did together were Thanga Pathakam, Iru Malarkal, Thrisoolam and Kalthoon.

At the 100th day function of Iru Malarkal, he said to me, 'All of us took so much pains and acted but you just smiled beautifully in the film, and you are getting all the awards and credit!' -- of course, he was only joking.

Sivaji Sir was one person who had the magnanimity to appreciate other artists. I faced several co-artists who cut you to size but Sivaji Sir wasn't that kind of person at all. I can confidently say that he was one of the rare artists who wanted everybody to shine in a film of his!

We must have acted together in more than 25 films, and I knew him for nearly thirty years but I never saw him edit out a scene of another artist.

Once on the sets, he would not think of anything else but the film. He was a very disciplined person and expected everybody else to be disciplined too.

At the beginning of my career itself, he'd tell me: 'Vijaya, you will earn a good name as an artist. Come prepared for the shot. Do it well. Don’t miss such a good chance.’

These remarks did made me a little tense too! I was afraid, unsure if I had done the scene properly.

I will never forget the celebration associated with my 300th film where all the senior artists including Sivaji Sir, MGR, Gemini Ganesh praised me for my work.

I'd like to narrate two incidents that happened when we were on location. In Kerala he had to do an action sequence for Malayalam film. Once he canned the shot, everyone spontaneously applauded.

He was the only one who could bring emotion to an action scene. The reaction of those who were not his ardent fans show how great he was.

Similarly, in Kashmir for Thrisoolam, a scene has both of us meeting after a long gap of 25 years.

As we walked towards each other, we had to emote mixed feelings of joy, pain and sorrow. Before the director said ‘cut’ all the locals who were watching the shooting clapped loudly. They didn’t know him, they didn’t know the language but they could identify the emotions. It was then that I realized emotions had no barrier at all.

Last month, I received a call from his wife enquiring about my health. I learnt from her that he was admitted to hospital. He spoke to me too, advised me to take care of my health.

There he was in the hospital, advising me to take care of my health! He was that kind of a person, caring and loving.

As told to Shobha Warrier

Also Read:
A Tribute to the Legend Sivaji Ganesan