Pratap was a reluctant, but rare actor: Suhasini

On Friday, Kollywood woke up to the shocking news of the demise of Pratap Pothen. An actor and a filmmaker par excellence, with over 100 films to his credit, Pratap succumbed to a cardiac arrest and passed away in his sleep. As tributes pour in from his friends and fans alike, we reached out to Suhasini Maniratnam, who made her acting debut with the award-winning film Nenjathai Killathe, which starred Pratap Pothen in the lead, along with Mohan.
“He was my first costar. But I never even imagined that he was acting in the film! It was supposed to be a love story with Mohan and I, but after two months of shoot, Pratap suddenly came on board. He was already an established actor and it was fabulous working with him,” she begins, “He was a reluctant actor, so was I. He was more interested in literature and the technicalities of cinema, and I was a technician. So, it was kind of easy for me to get along with him. We became thick as friends.”
Suhasini says that Pratap was a friend to her family as well. “I think by that time, Kamal (Kamal Haasan) had acted with him in Balachander’s Varumayin Niram Sivappu and he was a regular visitor to our house. And we had such great evenings of chatting and laughing together. He and my dad were also great friends. He had a nickname for my father. Whenever he would say something sarcastic, Pratap would go, ‘Oh, it’s a Charuhaastic comment’. He also called him Century Haasan,” she smiles.
Suhasini and Pratap acted in three more films together in Tamil. “He had a great sense of humour. And his vocabulary was so brilliant. I learnt sarcasm and how to use jargons from him. More than a co-star, he was a friend, a senior who was always looking out for me. He made my film journey so smooth,” she says and goes on to narrate a couple of anecdotes.
“One of our producers, Gauri Shankar liked us so much that at the end of shoots, he would take us to five-star restaurants and we would order milkshakes, faloodas, sandwiches… Those days, we didn’t have pizza. So, we would be eating sandwiches and drinking milkshakes and soups at star hotels,” she recalls, and adds, “We also did a Telugu film with Dasari Narayana Rao, in which Pratap pours kerosene over me and burns me. He refused to do the scene, and argued with the director, saying, ‘How can I kill her? She is so sweet, she is my friend. You do something else.’ He was a wonderful, wonderful co-star and friend.”
Suhasini says Pratap was an actor who had no inhibitions. “He was a scene-stealer. I think Kamal and Rajini and others used to be intimidated by him because he had no fear. He was not worried about who was acting with him because he had so much self-confidence. He did not want to become a star. He had no inhibitions as an actor and that gave him an edge over everyone else to perform. Pratap was there in every film made in the 1980s. And all of us – me, Radikaa, Poornima,Revathy, Sarita, Sumalatha – acted with him. And the work he has done in Malayalam…! He was a sensation in the late 70s and early 80s. I was a camera assistant in Sollathe Yarum Kettaal – he had acted as a very innocent clerk in a crime thriller. And then, they wrote a character of a copywriter in an ad agency for a film for him! I mean, who else could have played a copywriter better than him. He looked the part! He was a rare actor that we had in the 80s. He was very underrated as an actor,” she states.
Pratap was also known for this sense of style. “At that time, the way he dressed, anybody would mistake him for a college student doing his PG or doctorate. His sense of style was casual, yet sophisticated. He had great features. I think he was the first actor (hero) to wear glasses in his films, making it very real. I don’t think any other actor wore glasses. Today, it may sound very silly, but in the 1970s and 80s, he was trendsetter,” she says.
The 80s stars' reunion is a tradition in the south film industry, and Pratap Pothen is a regular in these get-togethers. Ask Suhasini when was the last time she spoke with him, and she says, “We always kept in touch, except during the pandemic. He was there for my 50th birthday, he was there for all my family occasions. We used to go to the same gym and chat for hours together while walking on the treadmill. He loved my son Nandan a lot. He got his cook to make a special Kerala-style lime pickle that Nandan likes and delivered it over. I think that was the last time he called, saying he was sending lime pickle to my house. Yeah, life sometimes takes us on a different journey.”