Samantha to Jyothika: How Tamil actresses are saying marriage changes nothing

For many years, people held the notion that an actress's career is over when she gets married. However, things are changing, and for good. Actresses now, after marriage, are either willing to continue to working or ready to make a comeback after a break. And not for inconsequential roles. They are taking up opportunities that have them as the hero of the story. Samantha’s Rangasthalam is a perfect example of how her wedding to Naga Chaitanya did not play a role in her professional career. Take a look at actresses who have shattered the notion that marriage is the end of their acting career.

Samantha Akkineni is on cloud nine. She tied the knot with Naga Chaitanya a few months ago. Now, her recently-released film Rangasthalam has collected over Rs 120 crore worldwide in just six days. The film’s success is extremely important to the Mersal actress given that it has helped her bust the myth that married actresses are not 'heroine material'. Samantha’s line-up of films this year has Savitri’s biopic Mahanati, Tamil-Telugu remake of Kannada flick U-Turn and Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Super Deluxe.

Though Jo was bold enough to bid goodbye to her acting career post her marriage to Suriya, she decided to make a comeback with 36 Vayadhinile, the Tamil remake of Malayalam film How Old Are You? At a time when heroines are not willing to disclose their age, Jo went on to play a role with her actual age. Ever since she made her comeback, she has resolved to choose roles that will show women in a dignified manner and not just eye-candy. Her latest film Naachiyaar by director Bala turned out to be a game-changer in her career. Now, the actress is shooting for Mani Ratnam’s multi-starrer flick, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam.

Malayalam actress Manju Warrier’s career is similar to that of Jyothika’s. Both of them quit acting when they got married. However, after a decade, Manju made her comeback with Rosshan Andrews’s How Old Are You? which brought the powerhouse performer back to Mollywood. Since 2014, she has been extremely careful in choosing her scripts. Though one or two films of hers have failed miserably at the box office, she has been part of many hit films. She was last seen as Dr Neelima, an independent idealistic woman and wife of Mohanlal in the film Villain. Though the film received a lukewarm response, her performance won critical acclaim. Apart from acting in films, she also co-founded Women in Cinema Collective, an organisation that works towards the welfare of women in the Malayalam film industry.

Simran quit acting when she was at the peak of her career. However, it did not take her long to make her comeback. But she has been finding it hard to break away from the cliched roles that are being offered to her. After her comeback, she played a substantial role in Gautham Menon’s Vaaranam Aayiram. In Mysskin’s Thupparivaalan, she played the role of Mrs Diwaker, an important character. Her line-up of films in 2018 looks exciting. She might play the villain in Sivakarthikeyan’s Seema Raja. She also has Arvind Swami’s Vanangamudi and Vikram’s Dhruva Natchathiram in the pipeline.

Sshivada Nair may not be in the league of Samantha, Jyothika or Simran, but, the roles she has chosen before and after her marriage speak volumes about her. She made her Tamil debut in 2014 with Nedunchaalai, in which her performance was lauded by the critics and audiences alike. She tied the knot in 2015 and surprisingly, continued to act in films, with the support of her family. It was her performance in Rohin Venkatesan’s Adhe Kangal in 2017 that catapulted her to fame. She is now busy with films in Tamil and Malayalam.