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Though countless others have won the award for the Best Actress year after year, it is still Sharada who is known as Oorvasi Sharada. For OORVASI was the name of the award before it was changed to Best National Actress.

Though there are a couple of amazing facts about her receiving that award, neither has any basis for her being named so. She was actually the first winner of the award, though the year before Nargis was given it purely as a honorary title. And she is the only three time winner of the Oorvasi award. But as I said earlier neither her performance in the famed and much feted Thulabaram, a movie made in four languages and a super hit in each one, nor her multiple triumphs changed her name.

Today she modestly attributes her success to the training she received in her early days, but no one without her range of acting abilities could have acted in 400+ movies and still retain a zest for anointing the facial grease.

When asked whether she still retained a hunger for acting, she said: If I did not possess this extreme desire for acting, I would not even have come into films.; This is the story of an extraordinary actress who for five decades has entertained India and carved her name in the Hall of Fame of Indian Cinema.

Early years

My given name is Saraswati Devi and with my brother (MohanRao) we are the two children of Mr Venkateswar Rao and Mrs Sachyavathi Devi, a family of agriculturalists, with quite a bit of farming land.

Born in Tenali into a family of landed gentry, I however spent all my formative years in Chennai, then Madras. I was raised by grandmother Kanakamma, a strict disciplinarian who wouldn’t even let the heroes touch me. Rehearsals were only on Sundays, another commandment of this wonderful lady.

As is the tradition with most Indian, especially South Indian families, I started to learn dancing when I turned six. There were no sabhas those days and performances were strictly for festivals like Dassera, events at temple etc.

Thus monetary benefits were not any concern at all, but it was more for the honour of participating. In short” art for art’s sake” was our motto. Though the teachers were harsh disciplinarians, and the lessons hard, I had no big complaints.

But it was my mother’s desire that I learn dancing, become a big star in the cine field.. My father was not so keen on the idea. He was a businessman dealing in a number of things, including gold. However, no one including my father, wanted to disappoint my mother’s ambitions for me.

From dancing I graduated into the theatres, with grandmother acting as supervisor. At the age of 13 I acted as the wife of a man who was nearly 30 years older than me. (This practice of doing roles that were far older to my real age seems to be a strain that runs throughout my career. The Thulabaram character for instance, which she did at 22, required a woman with far greater maturity, say one in her thirties).

Actually I had already done a movie before walking the boards, a movie called Kanya Sulkam (Meaning dowry). Then I acted in theatre in the Telugu version of Ratha Kanneer in over 100 shows all over Tamil Nadu.

And in 1959/1960 I began my movie career as Sharada. The name change was largely due to the fact that a number of Saraswatis were already present in the field. And since Sharada has a meaning similar to Saraswati, I was rechristened. It was then that I was booked by Mr L V Prasad, though ironically I never acted in any of his films.

But once booked, my training in the Navarasas began. And I am certain that my performances and growth in this field are largely due to this early training. And then came Mithramithrulu, a film about two friends, with Mr Nageswara Rao playing a dual role. It was as they say in today’s language a super duper hit and so started my five decade career in films.

Note: Ms Sharada is still at it, though her pace is much more moderate nowadays. She has done a movie in Telugu, STALIN where she plays the role of Chiranjeevi’s mother and I bet there are more gems to come from this treasure chest of talent.