“I was on a mini tour,” recalls 79-year-old Santhimani, one of Kollywood’s busiest character artistes.“I attended a relative’s wedding in Kumbakonam and then went to Madurai and Salem...it was quite a journey.” She has not taken up any work in the last 48 days due to the strike in Kollywood. “I figured I may as well go and see my folks, rather than be cooped up inside the house,” says the actor, better known to film audiences as ‘Kaaka Muttai paati’ , the grandmother who whips up dosa disguised as pizza for her grandchildren in the Manikandan-directed film.
At Santhimani’s home in KK Nagar, her daughter, Manimekalai, is preparing a special Friday lunch. “There are going to be guests today,” says Manimekalai. R Mangayarkarasi and MR Rukmini, also daily-wage character artistes and Santhimani’s close pals, will call in on her. Manimekalai says the last 48 days was a difficult stint for her mother. “Her head is constantly buzzing with cinema. You can’t keep people like her from their work for long. They get restless.” The Kaaka Muttai paati intervenes as she rolls a betel leaf and tucks it into a corner of her mouth. “I was worried as I was on debt.”
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Mangayarkarasi joins us by now. Popularly known as Kadugu paati (she played mother to actor Bharath in the Vijay Milton film), she is proud of her friend. “I was so happy when she came home with an award for her performance in Kaaka Muttai . She made our clan so proud and earned us the respect we deserve.” The strike period, however, wasn’t smooth for her. “I was struggling to pay my rent. And, travelling is a costly affair for me. A ticket from my residence in Kovur to this place costs ₹50!” Mangayarkarasi looks at the spread of egg bhurji and sambar on our leaves, and says, lost in thought, “It has been a while since I had a tasty fish kozhambu .” They get a monthly pension of ₹1,000, but that is barely enough. “I have been doing some side business selling soaps during this lean period.”
The road ahead
However, the cloud of dark thoughts clears as she agrees to enact a scene from Rajinikanth’s upcoming movie, Kaala , in which the 68-year-old has played a vegetable vendor. Straightening her spine and sporting a look of disgust, she delivers her lines, “ Andha Kaala erandhutangala? Yaaru sonnathu? Avva saave maataanga. Poyya !(Kaala died, eh? Who said so? Kaala can never die.) Poyya !”
“I have acted in Sivaji too!” says Santhimani and shows us a series of pictures from different film sets on her smartphone. Her grandchildren are in charge of her pictures on the phone and instantly open up the folder with their grandmother’s selfies with Kollywood stars like Vijay Sethupathi and Samuthirakanni.
Just as she finishes her act, the third member of the musketeer troupe, Rukmini, walks in. The 75-year-old artiste, who started off as a dancer, says it is friends from the industry who are family to her now. “Now that the strike is over, I hope I get called.”
Money matters
Being a character artiste in an industry that revolves around stars is never a smooth sail. But, it is even worse if you are a daily-wage employee. “If you request for more remuneration, they reject you instantly, without any talk of negotiation,” says Mangayarkarasi, who earns about ₹700 a day, minus the transport fare and agent commission from her daily remuneration.
Despite all these stumbling blocks, they cannot imagine a day without spending time on the sets, cracking jokes with the stars, and the high they get when they hear the call of “action”. The recognition they get as an artiste is worth all this pain, they feel. “At the Kumbakonam wedding, people were taking selfies with me. For a minute, I was the star, stealing the thunder from even the bride and groom,” says Santhimani, flashing her characteristic childlike smile.
