Raadhika Sarathkumar is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

, entrepreneur, producer and politician who works predominantly in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

cinema along with

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

cinema as well as a few

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

films. She is the founder and CP of the

Radaan Mediaworks Radaan Mediaworks is an Indian production house based in Tamil Nadu, and founded by Radikaa Sarathkumar. Early history Radaan began as a proprietary business in 1975 and subsequently converting into a corporate entity in 1999. Subsidiary Rad ...

India Limited and doing serials in most of the south Indian languages. and is a recipient six

Filmfare Awards South Filmfare Awards South is the South Indian segment of the annual Filmfare Awards, presented by the Filmfare magazine of The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Indian film industry encompassing ...

, two

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

and three

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The aw ...

Personal life

Raadhika is the daughter of the late Tamil actor and comedian,

M. R. Radha Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan (14 April 1907 – 17 September 1979) was an Indian actor and politician active in Tamil plays and films. He was given the title "Nadigavel" (spearhead of acting) by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. He mostly play ...

who hails from Tamil Nadu and Geetha who is a Sri Lankan. Raadhika did her education in India, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. She has a younger sister

Nirosha Nirosha is an Indian film and television actress. She is known for her works predominantly in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. After her debut in Tamil in the film ''Agni Natchathiram'' (1988, directed by Mani Ratnam), Nirosha went ...

, who is also an actress, and two younger brothers, Raju and Mohan. She also has an older half-brother

Radha Ravi Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan Ravi (born 29 July 1952) is an Indian actor and politician who played supporting roles throughout his career. He is the son of actor M. R. Radha and the uncle of Vasu Vikram and half-brother of Raadhika. He is a ...

. Raadhika married actor

Sarathkumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards S ...

on 4 February 2001. They had been friends before their marriage and had been paired in two films: ''

Namma Annachi ''Namma Annachi'' () is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Dhalapathi. The film stars R. Sarathkumar in a triple role, along with Raadhika, Heera Rajagopal and Rupini. The film, produced by K. S. Srinivasan and K. S. Sivaraman, had ...

'' (1994) and '' Suryavamsam'' (1997). The couple has a son named Rahul born in 2004. Her daughter Rayane married Cricketer

Abhimanyu Mithun Abhimanyu Mithun (born 25 October 1989) is an Indian cricketer. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Mithun was called up to the India squad for the first Test against South Africa in 2009–10, only ten weeks after making his first-class debut. He ...

in 2016. Raadhika became a grandmother in 2018 when Rayane had a son.

Film career

She made her cinematic debut in 1978 Tamil Movie ''

Kizhakke Pogum Rail ''Kizhakke Pogum Rail'' () is a 1978 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film co-written and directed by Bharathiraja, starring newcomers Sudhakar and M. R. Raadhika. The film had musical score by Ilaiyaraaja and was released on 10 August ...

''. Then she started acting in many Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam films. She has also produced a film titled ''

Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai ''Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai'' () is a 1985 Indian Tamil-language romance film directed by Pratap Pothen in his directorial debut, and produced by Raadhika. They also star as the lead characters. The script was co-written by Pratap along with ...

'' (1985), which won the

Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director The Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of sev ...

. She was awarded Best Telugu Actress for ''

Nyayam Kavali ''Nyayam Kaavali'' () is a 1981 Indian Telugu-language film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy. The film is based D. Rameswari's novel ''Kotta Malupu''. It stars Chiranjeevi, Raadhika, Jaggayya, and Sarada. It was remade in Hindi as '' Mujhe Ins ...

'' (1981), Best Tamil Actress for ''

Dharma Devathai ''Dharma Devathai'' () is a 1986 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by S. P. Muthuraman for AVM Productions, starring Vijayakanth, Raadhika and Pallavi. It is a remake of the 1986 Telugu film ''Prathidhwani''. The film was releas ...

'' (1986), ''

Neethikku Thandanai ''Neethikku Thandanai'' () is a 1987 Indian Tamil-language film, directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar and written by M. Karunanidhi. The film stars Raadhika, Nizhalgal Ravi, Charan Raj and Senthil. It was released on 1 May 1987. The film was re ...

'' (1987) and ''

Keladi Kanmani ''Keladi Kannmanii'' (; also spelt ''Keladi Kanmani'') is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film that marked the directorial debut of Vasanth. The film stars S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Raadhika, Ramesh Aravind and Anju. It revolves aro ...

'' (1990). After becoming successful in cinema, Raadhika wanted to do something different and decided to take on the small screen, a venture that everyone thought was a mistake she would regret. But determined to pursue something she believed in, namely producing her own TV software under the

, she started the same in 1994. After some initial hiccups, the company re-emerged successfully as Radaan Mediaworks (I) Ltd in 1999, and by 2008, had an annual turnover exceeding. She was a judge on

Vijay TV Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly Star India), a subsidiary of Asianet Star Communications. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Star Vijay chang ...

's ''

Jodi Number One ''Jodi Number One'' is an Indian Tamil-language dance competition reality television show broadcast on Star Vijay and from the year 2006. Its contestants are couples who are generally television stars in their own right, often from the televi ...

'' Season 4. She produced serials such as ''Idi Katha Kadu'' (

), '' Chitti'', '' Annamalai'', ''Selvi'', ''Arasi'', ''

Chellamay Chellamey ( ta, செல்லமே) is a 2009 Indian Tamil language soap opera starring Radikaa Sarathkumar, Radha Ravi, Saakshi Siva, Delhi Ganesh, Vijayalakshmi, Devipriya, Abhishek Shankar and Vijay Adhiraj. It replaced Arasi and ...

'', '' Vani Rani'', ''

Thamarai Thamarai (born 10 November 1975) is a noted Tamil poet and lyricist. She is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. She made her debut in the Tamil film industry through the 1998 film Iniyavale, which was directed by Seeman and music co ...

'' and ''

Chithi - 2 ''Chithi 2'' is an Indian Tamil-language soap opera which premiered on 27 January 2020 and ended on 28 May 2022 with 580 episodes in Sun TV. It is a reboot of the 1999 series ''Chithi''. Produced by Radaan Mediaworks, it stars Preethi Sharma ...

''. In September 2019, she was awarded as "Nadigavel Selvi" during audio launch of '' Market Raja MBBS''. She has won 1 -

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

(Producer), 6 -

s , 3 -

, 1 -

Cinema Express Awards Cinema Express Awards are presented annually by Indian Express Group on behalf of Cinema Express film magazine to honour artistic excellence of professionals in the south Indian film industry which comprises Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam ...

and 1 -

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 The All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (; AISMK) is a Tamil political party in India. The party's founder and president is actor R. Sarathkumar. Kumar was a part of DMK in his early political career and then joined All India Anna Dravida Munne ...

from 2007.

Awards and nominations

Filmography

References

External links

* {{Authority control Living people Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Telugu television Filmfare Awards South winners Indian film actresses Indian television actresses Nandi Award winners Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners 20th-century Indian actresses 21st-century Indian actresses Actresses from Chennai Tamil film producers Telugu film producers Indian women film producers Film producers from Chennai Businesswomen from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian businesswomen 20th-century Indian businesspeople 21st-century Indian businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesspeople Producers who won the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director National Film Award Actresses in Tamil television Place of birth missing (living people) 1963 births