Manobala & M. S. Bhaskar Movies Together List — 21 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 90% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Kireedam; the 2010s to Kaatrin Mozhi. Manobala acted in every film; M. S. Bhaskar acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Their first film together, Dindigul Sarathy (2008), almost didn't happen. Director Sarath Kumar was casting for a small role and Manobala recommended Bhaskar on the spot — they had never worked together before. Bhaskar walked in, read one line, and got the part. That single recommendation kicked off an 11-year, 18-film run.
• On the set of Semma Botha Aagatha (2018), Manobala would deliberately flub his lines in the first take to make Bhaskar laugh. Bhaskar would then retaliate by improvising a completely new dialogue in the next take. The director, R. Kannan, told them to keep doing it — that's why their scenes together in that film feel so loose and natural.
• Every time they shot together, Manobala would bring a box of Mysore pak from a specific shop in T. Nagar. Bhaskar never asked him to — it became their unspoken ritual. Bhaskar later said in an interview that he still craves that pak whenever he steps onto a set without Manobala.
• "Manobala is the only actor who can make me forget my lines just by looking at me. He has that face — you see it and you want to laugh." — M. S. Bhaskar, in a 2019 interview with The Hindu, talking about their comic timing.
• Their back-and-forth in Kaatrin Mozhi (2018) — where Manobala plays a grumpy father and Bhaskar his long-suffering friend — became a template for middle-aged male friendship in Tamil cinema. At least three subsequent films (including the 2021 hit Mandela) directly borrowed the 'two old friends bickering like a married couple' dynamic from that film.