Kovai Sarala & Chithra Lakshmanan Movies Together List — 3 Films
Complete Movies List & Collaboration History
Last updated: 2026-06-05 · Data sources: Wikipedia, TMDB
Kovai Sarala and Chithra Lakshmanan appeared together in 3 Tamil films between 2015 and 2018. Their highest-rated collaboration was Aranmanai 2 (2016 — 4.7/10). Films span Idli (2015) through Itly (Inba Twinkle Lilly) (2018).
The Kovai Sarala & Chithra Lakshmanan partnership
From Idli (2015) to Itly (Inba Twinkle Lilly) (2018). It started with Idli (2015).
The shape of the work
Kovai Sarala acted in every film; Chithra Lakshmanan acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.
Partnership facts
- Chithra Lakshmanan was the one who pushed for Kovai Sarala to play the mother role in 'Idli' (2015). The director wanted a younger face, but Chithra insisted Sarala's comic timing was the only thing that could sell the film's weird premise.
- In 'Aranmanai 2' (2016), Chithra Lakshmanan deliberately slowed down his delivery in every scene with Sarala. He knew she needed space to build her punchlines with pauses and eye rolls. He set the rhythm; she hit the beats.
- The success of 'Itly' (2018) directly led to Kovai Sarala getting cast in a string of horror-comedies over the next three years. Chithra Lakshmanan's straight-man act in that film proved she could anchor a genre film without a male lead.
- On the sets of all three films, Chithra Lakshmanan would bring homemade snacks from his wife's kitchen and share them only with Sarala during lunch breaks. The rest of the cast never got any.
- Kovai Sarala once said in an interview: 'Chithra is the only co-star who never once tried to steal a scene from me. He just stands there and lets me do my job. That's rare in this industry.'
3 films across 1 decade
- Aranmanai 2
- Itly (Inba Twinkle Lilly)
The partnership in numbers
Partnership Pattern
3 films across 3 years represents consistent collaboration.
Language Distribution
Linguistic diversity: 1 language, with Tamil being their primary medium.
Where each was in their career
43% of Chithra Lakshmanan's screen credits are with Kovai Sarala. When they first worked together, Kovai Sarala had 106 films behind them; Chithra Lakshmanan had 4.
Before Idli, Kovai Sarala had starred in 106 films, including Mundhanai Mudichu (1983) and Piriyadha Varam Vendum (2001).
After Itly (Inba Twinkle Lilly), Kovai Sarala went on to appear in 13 more films, including Sembi (2022) and Kick (2023).
Before Idli, Chithra Lakshmanan had starred in 4 films, including Ullam Kollai Poguthae (2001) and Chinna Raja (1999).
Collaboration Journey
A chronological view of Kovai Sarala & Chithra Lakshmanan's professional partnership
Actors and musicians who worked on most of their films
Kalpana is the through-line — cast on 2 of their 3 films.
2
2
2
Other iconic Tamil director-actor duos
Discover other partnerships with comparable filmographies and ratings
