It is almost one o’clock on a cloudy, grey Monday afternoon, when we reach yesteryear actor Sowcar Janaki’s residence on Cenotaph Road. Emerging from her room in a bright pink sari, the 83-year-old welcomes the reporter with a sunny smile and apologises for keeping her waiting for a few minutes.
“I am not like other celebrities. It is not my habit, don’t take me wrong,” she says in her trademark rasping voice that belies her age. Coaxing the reporter and photographer to have tea and sweets, she laughs at the compliments for her attire and her stunning persona. Ledhu amma, she says in Telugu. “I am still not comfortable with photographs,” she adds. But films are another thing altogether, she says with an impish smile.
Sowcar Janaki, who debuted on screen at the age of 17 in the Telugu flick Shavukar (1950) opposite a debuting N T Rama Rao, was not an accidental actor.
“I was approached by B N Reddy for a movie when I was just 15 and was working with AIR. At that time, my parents and brother were completely against it. I was eventually married off to someone, who they thought was perfect for me. But after the wedding and a baby, we realised my husband’s earnings weren’t enough and I went back to try my luck in films. But he had no role for me then and suggested that I meet his brother Nagi Reddy. After meeting Reddy, I was only expecting a small role. It took them over a month to respond. I got a call from L V Prasad and he told me they have decided to cast me opposite NTR. Now, no actress can imagine entering the industry after marriage leave alone kids,” she says.
It wasn’t a smooth sail for her despite the big launch, as she waited for roles for a few years. “The lull in between was very painful. Sometimes, I would be booked for a film and then dropped from it without being given any reason. I wasn’t as buxom as T R Rajakumari or Bhanumathi. Many even said I was not a heroine material and was quite ordinary looking,” she adds.
In the subsequent years, she made her Tamil debut with Valayapathi. Language was never a barrier for the artiste, who did films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.
“Valayapathi had high-flown Tamil dialogues penned by Bharathidasan. I always remembered LV Prasad’s words. He told me ‘if your dialogue delivery is good, you don’t have to put much effort into acting’,” she says.
Juggling a film career and household duties came with a set of implications for the actor. “I once swooned on the sets of S S Vasan’s film due to malnutrition. Hearing about the incident, Vasan immediately ordered his assistant to pay me the full amount. He told me, ‘You are a heroine now and you belong to the people. You must take good care of yourself. They waited for me to recover before resuming the shooting,” she adds.
It was a path filled with ups and downs for the actor who was trying to manoeuvre around the different dynamics.
“During the initial years, I missed a chance to work with Akkineni Nageshwara Rao in Devadas. But later I worked with him in seven films,” she adds. Her last outing Vanavarayan Vallavarayan met with criticism.
“I was asked why I chose to do the role. But I don’t think there was anything crude or vulgar about it. I disagreed on a few things in the film, but I had committed to it, so I went ahead,” she adds.
