After making her mark in the Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam industries, Suhasini Maniratnam made her Kannada debut in 1983 with K Balachander’s Benkiyalli Aralida Hoovu. However, the transition wasn’t smooth, as she faced a significant language barrier. During the IFFI 2025 session titled The Luminary Icons: Creative Bonds and Fierce Performances on Friday, Suhasini revealed that it took her several takes to deliver one of the film’s more difficult dialogues.
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Recalling the shoot of the movie, she shared, “In my first film, I didn’t know what acting was all about, but I got awarded the state award for best actress. I was taken aback. I was an 18-year-old. Then, my Malayalam and Telugu films were also successful. I went on to do a Kannada film with K Balachander. I was a confident actor by that time – Kamal Haasan’s niece, studied in a film institute and all that.”
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However, her first Kannada film came with its own challenges, as she had difficulty delivering a particularly tough dialogue. “But then, he gave me a dialogue, it was such a tongue twister. It was so difficult. I had to do 29 takes before the shot was ok. The 29th take was also not okay, but Balachander said that if I say this dialogue one more time, he will die of boredom or I’ll die gasping for breath, so let’s just keep this scene as okay and move ahead. Today I get it, but I didn’t get it 23 years ago.” Suhasini even showed the dialogue on the screen during session.
Suhasini Maniratnam further revealed that even her co-stars, including uncle Kamal Haasan, kept waiting for her to finish the scene. “This horrible dialogue wasn’t getting into my head. Not to mention, my co-actors put up with me. We started at 9 am in the morning and till 12 pm, we were on that scene. Even then, it was not an okay take. The director compromised because I wasn’t able to crack it,” she concluded.
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