Soundarya & M. S. Narayana Movies Together List — 9 Films

The shape of the work

The 2000s account for 78% of everything they made together. The 1990s belonged to Premaku Velayara; the 2000s to Devi Putrudu. Soundarya acted in every film; M. S. Narayana acted in all of them. Strictly Telugu cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Between shots on 'Azad' (2000), Soundarya and Narayana would sit in her vanity van and dub old black-and-white Telugu films for fun. She did S. V. Ranga Rao's lines; he did Savitri's.
• Soundarya personally requested M. S. Narayana for 'Choodalani Vundi' (1998) after seeing his comic timing in a stage play. She told the director she wouldn't do the film without him.
• On the sets of 'Premaku Velayara' (1999), Soundarya would deliberately flub her lines to make Narayana break character mid-scene. He'd then improvise a comeback that often made it into the final cut.
• Their pairing in 'Sardukupodam Randi' (2000) was so well-received that the director immediately wrote a spin-off track for them in his next film. That track became a standalone comedy album on cassette.
• In 'Ninne Premista' (2000), Soundarya insisted on doing the slapstick chase sequence herself because Narayana's timing was too fast for a body double. They rehearsed it 14 times before the director called 'action'.