A day after actor Sarath Babu passed away in Hyderabad after battling a prolonged illness, ‘superstar’ Rajinikanth visited the actor’s residence in Chennai on Tuesday, May 22 to offer his condolences. Sarath Babu had played prominent supporting roles in many hit films starring Rajinikanth, including Mullum Malarum, Annamalai, and Muthu. Rajinikanth addressed the press after his visit, and reminisced about his association with Sarath Babu.
“I knew Sarath Babu even before I became an actor. He was a wonderful human being and a good friend,” Rajini said, adding, “He would always be smiling. I’ve never seen him angry. All the movies we acted together in were a hit, from Mullum Malarum to Muthu, Annamalai and Velaikkaran. He had a great deal of affection for me. He would always be saddened by my smoking. He would say cigarettes will ruin your health, you must live long. He would take the cigarette from me and put it out, so I stopped smoking in front of him.”
Rajinikanth also recalled an incident from the film sets of Annamalai (1992). “You will remember the long dialogue I had in the film when I issued a challenge at [Sarath Babu’s] house. Ten to fifteen takes had gone by, but it wasn’t coming out well. So Sarath Babu got me a cigarette. After I smoked it and calmed down, the take went well and was okayed. I say this to highlight his affection. It is deeply saddening to me that someone who thought that I should be in good health and do well is no longer with us. He was an excellent human being. May his soul rest in peace.”
The scene Rajinikanth referred to went on to become one of his most iconic dialogues. It is an intensely emotional scene that shows the childhood friendship between his and Sarath Babu’s characters completely break down, setting the stage for a battle of wills between them. It was a tale of friendship turned into furious rivalry between a working-class Rajini and well-to-do Sarath Babu.
But the two actors were first seen together on screen in Mullum Malarum (1978), in which they starred alongside Fatafat Jayalaxmi and Shoba. Rajinikanth and Sarath Babu played antagonistic roles in the film, with the former acting as Kaali, an angry young winch-operator who soon comes to loggerheads with his boss Kumaran (Sarath Babu). The film continues to be popular among Rajinikanth fans. Kaali’s embittered defiance to Kumaran —“rendu kaiyum, rendu kaalum, pona kooda indha Kaali pozhachikuvaan, sir. Ketta payyan sir” — has near cult-status in the Superstar fandom.
In Muthu (1998), Rajinikanth played a chariot driver working for Sarath Babu’s zamindar character. The story of their friendship and the eventual twist in the film (of Rajinikanth’s character being the real heir to his employer’s feudal lands) also became a huge hit. This was incidentally the first Tamil film to release in Japan, where it went it became so successful that it won Rajinikanth a dedicated fanbase in the country. The Japanese version was released as Muthu:Odoru Maharaja (The Dancing Maharaja).
While many will be mourning the passing of Sarath Babu, many will also recall how his unflappable screen presence always provided the perfect foil to Rajinikanth’s angrier, brasher characters in the films they starred in together.