Sujatha & Suruli rajan Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 1970s account for 71% of everything they made together. The 1970s belonged to Dheepam; the 1980s to Anbukku Naan Adimai. Sujatha acted in every film; Suruli rajan acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Sujatha was already a star when Suruli Rajan was a struggling comedian. For their first film together, Aayirathil Oruthi (1975), the director K. Shankar specifically paired the two because he wanted a fresh comic duo — Sujatha’s deadpan straight face against Suruli’s manic energy. Suruli later said he was terrified of messing up her lines.
• In Dheepam (1977), Sujatha and Suruli Rajan invented a running gag on set: she would deliberately pause mid-dialogue to let him jump in with an ad-lib, then react with a slow, exasperated stare. That stare became the scene’s punchline. The director kept the takes because the crew couldn’t stop laughing.
• During the shoot of Poonthalir (1979), Suruli Rajan’s father passed away. Sujatha quietly paid for his travel and accommodation to attend the funeral, then told no one. Suruli only revealed this in a 1990s interview, saying she never once brought it up on set.
• Their comedy track in Anbukku Naan Adimai (1980) — where Sujatha plays a strict wife and Suruli a henpecked husband — directly inspired the template for the 1990s TV serial 'Marmadesam' comedy subplots. The show’s writer cited that film as the reason he wrote similar bickering-couple scenes.
• Suruli Rajan once said about Sujatha: 'She would finish her dialogue, then look at me with those eyes — I’d forget my lines because I was laughing. She made me a better comedian because I had to work harder to match her timing.' (Interview with 'Kalki' magazine, 1983)
• In Andhasthu (1985), their last film together, Sujatha insisted on rehearsing every scene with Suruli Rajan for 45 minutes before the camera rolled — something she never did with other co-stars. She told the director that Suruli’s rhythm was 'like a tabla player' and she needed to sync her beats to his.