Manorama, affectionately called Aachi, awoke earlier this week to rumours that she had passed away. She had to call an urgent press conference to assure fans that all was well and that she was signing films as usual. “When you’re around for as long as I have, nothing surprises you any more,” she says, the weariness of age evident in her voice. The confusion arose when a section of the Telugu media learned that February 15 marked the seventh death anniversary of a Hindi actress called Manorama and came to the baffling conclusion that the veteran Tamil actress had passed away.
Aachi, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for acting in over 1,000 films, has now signed three Tamil films — Peraandi and two others not titled yet. Manorama says she doesn’t like saying no, even if the only brief she’s given these days is that she will play a paatti . “They come to me with respect and hope, and I don’t think it’s fair to refuse them.”
With the affectionate grandmother or elderly, concerned mother being what she usually plays now, I ask if she tries to get the director to add quirks to her character. “It is not an actor’s business to suggest changes. Actors are tools. They must just do whatever the director asks them to.” Is that her secret for being arguably the most appreciated female actor of all time in the industry? “May be… I simply go to the set and do my thing. By the way, I am not even sure I’m as great an artiste as all of you say.”
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The taciturn Manorama also takes a moment to express her disenchantment with the lack of importance female artistes generally command. “Where are the great female character artistes of the next generation?” she asks, rhetorically, and then, almost seems to chide herself for talking out of turn. “Maybe I shouldn’t even be talking about these things. How does my talking matter? For now, all I’ll say is I’m healthy.”