Manjula Vijayakumar & V. S. Raghavan Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

The 1970s account for 80% of everything they made together. The 1970s belonged to Ninaithadhai Mudippavan; the 1980s to Bala Nagamma. Manjula Vijayakumar acted in every film; V. S. Raghavan acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Director A. C. Tirulokchandar cast Manjula and Raghavan as father-daughter in 'En Magan' (1973) after seeing Raghavan's intense villain role in 'Thanga Padakkam'. Manjula was just 19; Raghavan was 50. She later said she was terrified of him on day one.
• In 'Ellorum Nallavare' (1975), Raghavan played a strict father while Manjula played his rebellious daughter. He deliberately broke character between takes to make her laugh — she said it was the only way she could cry on cue for the emotional scenes.
• Manjula and Raghavan shared a running joke: every time they finished a film together, Raghavan would gift her a small brass Ganesha. She collected four of them — one for each movie. She kept them on her dressing table until she quit acting.
• Their 1978 film 'Shankar Salim Simon' was the first Tamil movie to cast a major star (Manjula) opposite a character actor (Raghavan) in a non-romantic lead pair. It opened the door for later odd-couple pairings like 'Nayagan' and 'Anjali'.
• Manjula once told a magazine: 'Raghavan sir would whisper the next line in my ear during close-ups. He said it helped me react naturally. I never told the director — it was our secret.'