With his distinctive voice, innate charm and commanding onscreen presence, the bespectacled Sarath Babu was South India’s gentleman actor. Even when his personal relationships became fodder for gossip, they did not chip away at his reputation.
“He was one gentleman in the film industry – pakka, real gentleman”, said actor Nizhalgal Ravi about his Annamalai (1992) co-star in an interview. In a career spanning over 50 years, Babu appeared in more than 250 films—mainly Telugu and Tamil, but also in Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. He could hold his presence with the best of the superstars from Rajinikanth to Kamal Haasan.
His gentlemanly status was cemented early in his career in Pattina Pravesam (1977), where he was cast last minute by the legendary Tamil director K. Balachander. Balachander was convinced that Babu’s charming smile and dashing looks gave him a gallant, if not aristocratic, bent. In one scene, Babu, dressed in a stylish brown suit, black and red tie, and aviator glasses, arrives at the protagonist’s house and declares: “It is a marvel to meet actual, real-life villagers.” His line in the movie “Because I am a gentleman” would make him famous.
He was often typecast as the quintessential friend, or the good-natured sidekick. In the Tamil movie Nizhal Nijamagiradhu (1978), his redemptive story arc opposite Kamal Haasan won him accolades. In Annamalai, he plays the owner of a five-star hotel whose best friend is a milkman. And in Muthu (1995), he’s a zamindar who falls in love with an actress.
But it was in Por Thozhil (2023) that he reminded audiences of his versatility as an actor. Not willing to be typecast as the good friend, he played the role of a serial killer. Director Vignesh Raja was not sure if he would play the villain, but Babu rose to the occasion.
“People have seen him as the gentleman of Tamil cinema because of the characters he’s done, and that’s how he’s been in life also. He had to be a huge sport to subvert that image, and do it convincingly. People were scared when he came to the screen [in Por Thozhil]. You could feel the tension in the air,” Raja told ThePrint.
The filmmaker’s behind-the-scenes interactions with Babu reaffirmed his gentlemanly image and solidified his reputation as a true director’s actor.
“I got to know later that even while shooting Por Thozhil, he was battling illness. Never once, not even once, was he late or asked the schedule to be changed,” Raja recalled. The film’s schedule was brutal. “But he was very involved, very kind, and very accommodating.”
Raja continued to be amazed by the veteran actor’s dedication to his craft, and his openness to play a character completely unlike his previous ones. “Only someone who loves cinema with all his heart would do something like this, right?”
A reluctant start
Like most actors of his generation, Sarath Babu stumbled into acting. His father, a hotelier, was keen that he joined the family business. Babu wanted to enter the police force but developed nearsightedness. His height and good looks, however, made him perfect for the silver screen.
“People told my mother that her son was good-looking and he should try to get into films. The lecturers in college said the same and that was playing on my mind. My father was against it, but my mother supported me,” he had said in an interview with The Hindu.
In a 2020 interview with his friend and dramatist YG Mahendran, Babu recalled his college days, and how theatre directors would frequently approach him to act in their plays. “That four-letter word, ‘hero’, was attached to me,” he told Mahendran. “Every director wanted to cast me in college. I couldn’t study because of that.” In the interview, Babu, though he was touching 70, looked remarkably young and carefree, punctuating most of his sentences with a jovial laugh.
Describing an early encounter to Mahendran, Babu recalled going to Safire Theatre in Chennai to watch a movie. A famous director noticed him there during the interval, while he was chatting with his friends.
“He asked me if I was an actor. I told him, with all the carelessness of youth, I hadn’t decided yet. He told me, ‘When you decide, come to my office.’” Babu did not follow up on it, but still found his way into acting.
“They forced me to act, but after a while, I started enjoying it.”
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Rocky relationships
Babu lived life on his terms. His relationship with Telugu actress Rama Prabha was a subject of gossip for decades.
The relationship ended in the 1980s, with Prabha accusing him of cheating her and snatching her properties in Chennai. Sarath Babu denied these claims throughout his career. He smiled while addressing the rumours in a Telugu interview with TV9 : “People are welcome to check the property details. In fact, I sold agricultural land and bought property with that money for her.” In the same interview, Babu reflected on the relationship with surprising candour: “When I was 22 years old, I made a decision that I was not mature enough to make.
Sarath Babu would go on to marry Sneha Nambiar in 1990, the daughter of famous Tamil actor MN Nambiar. The couple met at the Chennai Boat Club, according to Sneha Nambiar’s son Dipak Nambiar. Their divorce was finalised in 2016, but they remained close friends until Babu’s death in 2023.
There was an outpouring of grief when Babu died due to sepsis on 22 May 2023. Everyone – from politicians to directors, actors to fans – mourned his passing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the actor’s “versatile and creative” career. And Rajinikanth recalled how Babu would snatch away his cigarette if he caught him smoking.
Vignesh Raja remembers the last time he saw Sarath Babu.
“He called me after finishing Por Thozhil’s dubbing. He told me he had a good feeling about the film and that he hoped it would get a good release. I was actually waiting to show it to him when I got the unfortunate news of his passing,” he said.
A scene in Sagara Sangamam (1983) encapsulates Babu’s enduring creative legacy. “Your craft is going to make you live forever”, he tells a dying friend played by Kamal Haasan – a testament to the gentleman’s impact on southern cinema.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)