Potpourri of tidbits about Tamil cinema - Kutty Padmini

‘I got the national award as the ‘Best child artiste’ for the film ‘Kuzhanthaiyum deiyvamum’. We went to Delhi to receive the award. Jaishankar was my father in the movie and Jamuna my mother. Awards had been announced for the directors Krishnan – Panchu also. The awards were being distributed one by one but my name was not announced till the end. I was shocked and started crying. It was Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then minister for Information & Broadcasting who distributed the awards. The duo Krishnan – Panchu was mistaken as a single person and only one shield had been kept ready for them. But when the duo climbed up to receive the shields, they managed the situation by giving away my shield along with the marked one. A. V. M. Murugan, who was seated near me, gave me this information. But I couldn’t accept the explanation as I thought why I should lose my award for the mistake committed by the authorities who organized the function.

I was selected as the best child artiste for my performance in not only the Tamil film ‘Kuzhanthaiyum deiyvamum’ but also for my performance in a Telugu and a Kannada film too. But they said that I couldn’t bag three awards at the same time and that I would get the award for the Tamil movie only. Now, even that award had not been given to me. I was so upset that I rushed to Indira Gandhi who was preparing to leave. I hugged her and told her everything. She patiently listened to me. On hearing my woe, she wanted to watch the Tamil movie ‘Kuzhanthaiyum deiyvamum’. The print was sent to Delhi by flight and she watched it the very next day itself amidst her tight schedule. After watching the film, she announced that I would receive my award at the award function scheduled for the following day. Rajkapoor and Nargis both didn’t turn up for the first day award function because the aircraft they travelled in was hit by a bird. But they attended the second day award function and I received my award along with them. When Indira Gandhi gave me the shield she kissed me and congratulated me for my performance.

I had acted in two English movies also – ‘The prince and the pauper’ and ‘Tarzan goes to India’. I was only twelve years at that time.

Both ‘Nadigar thilakam’ and ‘Makkal thilakam’ mean to the film industry what our eyes mean to us, they are looked upon as Gods. In the film ‘Thiruvarutchelvam’, we had a scene where I would argue with ‘Nadigar thilakam’. A. P. Nagarajan arranged training for me to talk chaste Tamil. He explained to me the concerned scenes and dialogues. In that movie, the character Sivaji Ganesan did was Thirumalai king, who was an atheist. I donned the role of a small girl who changed him into a theist. The king would ask the girl to tell where was the God and what was He doing exactly at that moment. The girl would reply that if she were to answer his question, he should make her the ruler and place her on the throne. The king would oblige and place her on the throne. The girl would immediately order his arrest and imprisonment and would tell him that the God was doing only that at that point in time. At that, the king would change and would fall at the girl’s feet. He would grow emotional and tell that the girl was his Goddess who opened his eyes of wisdom. I always feel proud of Sivaji sir for his sincerity in being prepared to do any shot for the sake of the weight of the scene. And, I feel proud for having shared screen space with him in films including ‘Navarathri’ and ‘Thirumal perumai’.

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