Name another actor in Indian cinema who has shared the screen with Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay and Suriya. Not as a child artist making cameos across eras. As a working, credited, scene-commanding performer in each of their films. With a career that stretches across 48 years, over 200 films, five languages, a television production empire, a National Film Award and three full generations of Tamil cinema’s leading men, the list begins and ends with Radikaa Sarathkumar.

If you are wondering how her career began, it was almost by accident. She was studying in London when she visited India during a Christmas break in 1977. That was when director Bharathiraja spotted her and offered her a role in his next film. His film Kizhakke Pogum Rail released in 1978, and Radikaa Sarathkumar, barely 15, played the character Panchaali. In interviews over the years, she has repeatedly said she never wanted to enter the profession. But from that first film, the industry did not let her leave. And 48 years later, it still has not.

Generation one: Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sivaji Ganesan

Through the late 1970s and the entire 1980s, Radikaa Sarathkumar was one of the busiest leading ladies in South Indian cinema. She worked opposite Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Sivaji Ganesan. Between 1978 and 1990, she appeared in well over 200 films across Tamil and Telugu. In Telugu alone, she acted in more than 120 films between 1981 and 1989, a pace that few actors, male or female, have matched.

What set Radikaa apart from many of her contemporaries was the kind of roles she chose. She did not limit herself to the conventional heroine parts that the industry typically offered. She played women with agency, women who argued, women who made decisions, women who were not waiting for the hero to rescue them. It was a radical choice for the era, and it gave her performances a texture that directors valued and audiences responded to.

Generation two: Vijay, Suriya and the transition

Most leading actresses of the 1980s and early 1990s retired or faded from public view by the time the next generation of heroes arrived. However, Radikaa Sarathkumar did not. Instead, she made one of the smartest transitions in South Indian cinema history. She moved from being the leading lady to being the most reliable supporting actress in the industry.

Story continues below this ad

She appeared in films like Jeans, Saguni, Naanum Rowdydhaan, among others, her roles varying from a mother to a supporting role incredibly important for the film. While many of her peers from the 1980s disappeared entirely or moved to television as a step down, Radikaa treated television as an expansion, not a retreat.

The television empire

In 1999, Radikaa Sarathkumar founded Radaan Mediaworks India Limited, a production company focused on Tamil television. The timing was significant because Tamil television was entering a growth phase, and Radikaa positioned herself at the centre of it. Radaan produced some of the most popular and longest-running Tamil serials of the 2000s, including Chithi, Annamalai, Selvi and Arasi. She also produced Idi Katha Kadu in Telugu, expanding the company’s reach across languages.

Chithi, in particular, became a cultural phenomenon in Tamil Nadu, running for years and making Radikaa as much a television star as she was a film star. The serial’s popularity was such that it was eventually revived, with Radikaa returning to the franchise.

Story continues below this ad

Generation three: Suriya and the current era

Now, in 2026, Radikaa Sarathkumar is in Vishwanath and Sons, playing Suriya’s mother. She played the leading lady opposite heroes who were older than Suriya is now. And yet, in the film, the dynamic works because Radikaa Sarathkumar brings a naturalism and emotional weight to the mother role that makes the generational shift feel invisible.

Suriya with Radikaa Sarathkumar in a still from Vishwanath and Sons, directed by Venky Atluri.

Before Vishwanath and Sons, she appeared in Annabelle Sethupathi, Vaanam Kottattum, Love today, each time in a supporting role that punched above its screen time. She has also continued working in Telugu cinema, appearing in Raja the Great with Ravi Teja, Krishna Vrinda Vihari, Aadikeshava and S Saraswathi.

And then, earlier this year, Radikaa did something nobody expected. She came back as a leading lady. Thaai Kizhavi, directed by debutant Sivakumar Murugesan and produced by Sivakarthikeyan and Sudhan Sundaram under Sivakarthikeyan Productions and Passion Studios, saw her playing Pavunuthaayi, a fiercely independent, intimidating elderly moneylender in a rural village near Madurai. The film was entirely hers. Made on an estimated budget of Rs 10 crore, Thaai Kizhavi went on to collect Rs 82 crore at the box office, making it one of the most profitable Tamil films of the year.

The reason Radikaa Sarathkumar is still relevant at 63, after 48 years and over 280 films, is adaptability and an understanding how she can embed herself in the evolving scale of cinema. She understood, earlier than most, that a career in cinema is not one job.