Actor Rahman opens up on love life and career

Actor Rahman in an interview admitted that he had proposed to a heroine who worked with him. He said that the heroine started to feel that her career was more important than getting married. He then took a stance that there was no marriage in his life and lived a jolly bachelor life till he met the girl who became his wife. The heroine worked with him in his second film. As an afterthought, he said that the rejection was only good. The second Tamil film Kaane Kanimuthey had actress Amala as heroine . Amala rose to be a top actress in all South languages and later married Nagarjuna. Her two sons are heroes in Tollywood. Rahman said that he went into a depression. Rahman married a year after Amala got married. Reports said that Fazil who directed Ente Suryaputhriku in Malayalam had planned to cast Rahman in it and later opted for Suresh Gopi. He said that he met his wife at a marriage function. He was attracted by the girl who was wearing the thaata ( veil) that Muslim girls wear. Common friends took it up and it turned into a bonding. On the career front he said that he was easygoing as everything happened to him without a struggle. Offers came to him naturally as after Mammooty and Mohanlal , the other option was him. He had to reject films as his call sheets were full and this led to an impression that he was playing hard tp get. After knowing that he was misunderstood, he cleared the air with some directors and that included Fazil. Sajan the owner of a finance company and a producer who had approached him several times for Malayalam films had told him to take up a Tamil film that he was producing. That film was directed by SAC known to today’s generation as Father of Thalapathy. The film was Nilavae Malare (1996) which had Baby Shalini ( now wife of Ajith) along with Nadhiya and Manorama. It was a hit and also dubbed into Malayalam. There was no looking back and went to act with stalwarts like Sivaji Ganesan who played his father in Anbulla Appa. It was K Balchander directed film Puthu Puthu Arthangal that made him an household name and his box-office hit was Puriyatha Puthir the first film of K S Ravikumar. Recollecting an incident that happened during filming on sets of KB, he said that usually actors out of respect asked the director to show how to emote but as he was new to KB set, he did it his way and that was liked by the director and was even game to accepting his suggestions. He spoke about a difficult scene shot in Prasad Recording theatre in which he had to lip synch a song that was sung by SPB and in the background stood Illaiyaraaja who was the music composer. He played a playback singer in the film. After he pulled off the scene , KB hugged him . He said that in Tamil and Telugu as well , he was fortunate to acted with all veteran stalwarts. He said in Hindi too, he had the opportunity to act with Big B and was sad that he did not take a selfie. He revealed that Big B recognized him as the former was on the censor Board when the Tamil film Kuttrapathirakai based on Rajiv Gandhi assasinationi came for censoring. He said that the romantic linkups with Rohini with whom he acted the most was just a media creation and so was wth Shobana as he said that both were in the same age group and so vibed well. Going to his early days, he said that his memory of his father’s ancestral house in Nilambur was little as he spend most of his time in Oooty boarding school and In Bangalore and later career took him to Chennai, where he settled down. “ People in Tamil Nadu think that I am a Tamilian “ he said with a smile. Rahman’s father is a Muslim and mother a Hindu . His mother name is Savithiri Nair. He said that his father never compelled his mother to change and adopt Muslim religion and let her be herself. During the last days of his mother, he recalled that his father personally took care of her and even bathed her. He said that his father did not even allow to keep a nurse as he felt that it was his duty. At the start of the career, Rahman was a popular hero and Mohanlal was a villain who got the claps. Mammooty was an established Star then. Replying to a query as to why he did not reach Superstardom like Mammooty or Mohanlal , he said that he was busy acting in Tamil and Telugu films that came his way and had no marketing or planning on how to go about his career. He revealed that he was reluctant to act in Rajamanikam in Malayalam but Mammooty told him that the role would click with the mass. It brought him back to Mollywood in a big way. Rahman was part of Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan. Incidentally the debut film of Rahman in Malayalam had Mammooty and Suhasini in the lead.