Radhika Sarathkumar is an Indian actress, film producer, film director and politician who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu cinema, TV serials and web series as well as Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films. She is a recipient of a National Film Award, two Nandi Awards, three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and six Filmfare Award South.

Personal life

Radhika is the daughter of actor M. R. Radha and Geetha. Her father is a Telugu from Chennai and her mother is a Sri Lankan Tamil. Radhika did her education in India, Sri Lanka and a course in London, which she discontinued. She has a younger sister Nirosha, who is also an actress and two younger brothers, Raju and Mohan. She also has two half-brothers Radha Ravi and M.R.R Vasu. Radhika married actor Sarathkumar on 4 February 2001. They had been friends before their marriage and had been paired in two films: Namma Annachi (1994) and Suryavamsam (1997). The couple has a son named Rahul born in 2004. Radhika has a daughter Rayane born in 1992. Her daughter Rayane married cricketer Abhimanyu Mithun in 2016. Radhika has a grandson and a granddaughter.

Film career

Radhika made her cinematic debut in the 1978 Tamil movie Kizhakke Pogum Rail after accidentally meeting Bharathiraja. Thereafter, she acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam films. She has also produced a film titled Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai (1985), which won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director. She was awarded Best Telugu Actress for Nyayam Kavali (1981), Best Tamil Actress for Dharma Devathai (1986), Neethikku Thandanai (1987) and Keladi Kanmani (1990). After becoming successful in cinema, Radhika wanted to do something different and decided to take on the small screen, a venture that everyone thought was a mistake and one she would regret. But determined to pursue something she believed in, namely producing television serials under her own banner, she started Radaan Mediaworks in 1994. After some initial hiccups, the company re-emerged successfully as a publicly listed company Radaan Mediaworks (I) Ltd in 1999. She was a judge on Vijay TV's Jodi Number One Season 4. She produced serials such as Idi Katha Kadu (Telugu), Chitti, Annamalai, Selvi, Arasi, Chellamay, Vani Rani, Thamarai and Chithi 2. In September 2019, she was awarded as "Nadigavel Selvi" during audio launch of Market Raja MBBS.

Political career

She joined before the 2006 Assembly elections to join the AIADMK along with her husband R. Sarathkumar. On 18 October 2006, she was dismissed from AIADMK for anti-party activities. She was the vice president of All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi from 2007 until recently when she tendered her resignation. In the 2024 Indian general election, Radhika contested as the BJP candidate from the Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency. She lost the election and finished third. Vijaya Prabhakaran (son of Late Vijayakanth) finished with 214,606 votes higher than Radhika.

Controversies

Cheque bounce case

In 2014, Radiance Media Private Ltd. filed a petition claiming that Magic Frames, a company where Radhika and her husband Sarathkumar are partners, borrowed ₹1.50 crore and later her husband Sarathkumar took an additional loan of ₹50 lakhs in an agreement that the amount would be returned by March 2015. In 2017, Radiance media alleged that Magic Frames issued seven cheques as repayment and all of the cheques bounced for which seven cases were filed. In 2019, the Madras High Court had declined to quash the criminal proceedings in the pending cases after the couple moved the high court to quash them. Radikaa and Sarathkumar were convicted in the case by the Special Court on 7 April 2021. The court sentenced them to one year in prison and a fine of ₹3.3 crore. On the same day, her husband, Sarathkumar, received relief from the court for the sentence and the court issued arrest warrant to Radhika since she had not appeared in court.

Income tax raid

The Income Tax department conducted a raid on Radaan Mediaworks India Limited, a media company owned by Radhika Sarathkumar, in Chennai on 11 April 2017, days after the department interrogated her husband Sarathkumar and searched his house.

Awards and nominations

Filmography