Suhasini Mani Ratnam’s charm, simplicity and girl-next-door appeal made her the most popular actress of the 80s down south. After 28 years and 225 movies, of which 95 are in Telugu, Suhasini has chosen Bommarillu, a game show on TV as her comeback in Telugu land. And it’s not the lack of good roles that forced her to choose TV over films. “You will not see me in fiction, especially if it’s on TV. Television is still in its nascent stages, and the quality dished out makes one cringe. In films too, the choice is less. I can’t play the predictable mother who helps the hero fall in love, that’s not me,” she says.
Suhasini knows her Telugu audience well and knows exactly what clicks with them. And that’s why she believes her comeback show will be a bigger success than Amitabh Bachchan’s KBC. “I may not be as tall as the Big B or as big a star as Shah Rukh, but my show, where winners will walk away with a dream house, will be bigger than Kaun Banega Crorepati.”
Talking about her long absence from movies, Suhasini says, “The initiative should come from my side too. My priorities have changed. As much as I want to believe that I am not a typical wife/mother, that’s what I am, that’s what all Indian women are. our men haven’t changed yet, so till that happens we will not be as ambitious as we should be. I remember telling Aishwarya Rai when she was 24, to achieve everything she can before marriage, because once you are hitched, life changes