Reemembering Senthamarai on his 90th birth anniversary

Senthamarai was born on 13 April 1935 to a family unconnected to the film industry. He began his acting career on stage, sharing the stage with the likes of Sivaji Ganesan, M.G. Ramachandran and S.S. Rajendran.

Senthamarai made his film debut in the 1957 film, Maya Bazaar. In 1960 he shared the screen for the first time with Sivaji Ganesan in the film Kuravanji, followed by a role in MGR’s Thaai Sollai Thattathey. He would go on to share the screen with both of them throughout that decade and his on-screen association with Sivaji Ganesan continued until the mid-80s.

His versatility saw him share the screen with virtually all the lead actors of his time. While he was adept at intense character roles, he found his greatest fame as a villain, peaking in this category as the main villain in Rajinikanth’s Moondru Mugam. In the 1980s through to the 1990s, he became a regular in many of the films of Kamalhaasan and Rajinikanth.

He passed away on 14 August 1992 after suffering cardiac arrest. Three of his films released posthumously and his last released film was the Arjun-Pallavi starrer, Dhuruva Natchathiram. His wife, Kausalya Senthamarai, is a well-known actress on the small screen, best known for her role in Pandian Stores.