3 min readHyderabadAug 19, 2026 03:30 PM IST
Veteran actress Radikaa Sarathkumar has revealed that Suriya went through significant personal and mental struggles in recent years. Speaking at the Vishwanath and Sons success meet, Radikaa, who plays Suriya’s mother in the film and has known him for years, said she is one of the few people the actor opens up to, and that most people have no idea what he has been through privately.
“I feel way more connected to him as a family member because I’ve seen his struggles, seen the pain he’s been through. A lot of people have faced challenges in movies, but the real mental battles, that’s another level. Suriya overcame those struggles, and watching him closely, I genuinely feel proud when I see him,” she said.
She described Suriya as a deeply private person who rarely lets anyone in. “Suriya isn’t someone who talks a lot. He rarely opens up. He only really talks well with a select few people. I was one of the few close ones who talked to him a lot. I would tell him, don’t do it like this, do it like that.”
At the event, Radikaa Sarathkumar also talked about Suriya’s performance in Vishwanath and Sons. “His performance level is so extraordinary in Vishwanath and Sons. The character he has played is so challenging. His role is like walking on the needle.” She singled out one specific moment: “The scene where Mamitha Baiju reveals about his abroad trip and his reaction is so priceless.”
She then drew on her decades of experience to make a comparison that carried real weight. Radikaa, who has worked with Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sivaji Ganesan and Vijay across a career spanning five decades and over 280 films, said most leading men she has encountered would not have agreed to do what Suriya did in Vishwanath and Sons.
Also Read: The death of the South Indian family hero—and why Suriya might be the last one left
“I’ve been acting for all these years. I’ve seen so many heroes, and based on how they think and talk, I have a good enough understanding of what they wouldn’t do. They’d have ego, and with that ego, they’d think differently. But Suriya is very straightforward,” the actor said.
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About Vishwanath and Sons
Vishwanath and Sons, directed by Venky Atluri and produced by Sithara Entertainments, tells the story of Suriya’s Sanjay Vishwanath, a former international pistol shooter in his 40s whose life takes an unexpected turn when his infant son needs a bone marrow transplant. The search for a donor leads him to Maddy, a free-spirited woman in her 20s played by Mamitha Baiju, and what begins as an unlikely friendship gradually develops into something deeper, with the age gap between them becoming a source of tension within his family.
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