Heritage city mourns Sowcar Janaki

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Sowcar Janaki and Satyanarayana in " Nippulanti Nijam " Telugu film. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu

Sankaramanchi Janaki (1931-2026), a radio artist turned actress whose career spanned 72-years, was born in Seshayya Mettu Street in the heart of Rajamahendravaram city on December 12, 1931. The historians of the 1000-year-old city of Rajamahendravaram claimed that Ms. Janaki’s family lived in a house near Damerla Art Gallery.

“Ms. Janaki’s father, Sankaramanchi Venkoba Rao, worked in the paper mill. Her family lived in the old building, in which SBI’s Gokavaram branch is now in operation”, Jith Mohan Mitra told The Hindu . Mr. Mohan is a child artist who acted in Director K. Viswanath’s Sankarabharanam and Saptapatdhi and renowned singer.

Ms. Janaki has 450 films to her credit in the five languages: Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada. She has also acted in plays directed by renowned director K. Balachander in more than 300 shows. At 13, she had a brief stint as an artist with the Akashavani Madras.

After her marriage at the age of 18 in 1949, Ms. Janaki made her debut with the Telugu movie, Shavukaru , in which she paired with thespian N.T. Rama Rao (NTR), directed by L.V. Prasad, the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Shavukaru gave Ms. Janaki the moniker ‘Sowcar’. The Shavukaru film was remade as Enga Veetu Penn in Tamil in 1965.

She had also paired with many doyens of South Indian cinema, including Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR), M.G. Ramachandran, Gemini Ganesan and Prithviraj Kapur. She had even acted with the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and actor D. Jayalalitha.

Ms. Janaki was a part of the freedom movement during the freedom struggle in 1946-47, during which she worked closely with Durgabai Deshmukh. She recalled with great pride the privilege of having served Mahatma Gandhi as a young volunteer when Gandhi visited the Hindi Prachar Sabha in Madras. She was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2022.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has stated, “The demise of Ms. Janaki left me in shock. She will be remembered forever in her movies”.

Recalling her acting in Telugu movies, Deputy Chief Minister and Actor K. Pawan Kalyan mourned the death of Ms. Janaki: “Ms. Janaki gets her prefix to her name from her very own debut film - Shavukaru. She had played diverse characters, primarily as a lead-role actress, in more than 400 films”.

The Telugu people and the people of Rajamahendravaram will remember her emotive expressions forever and her acting in scores of Telugu movies. The demise of Ms. Janaki is a great loss to the Telugu film industry”, said Minister for Culture, Tourism and Cinematography Kandula Durgesh.

Former Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed deep sorrow over the passing of veteran actress and Padma Shri awardee Sowcar Janaki, describing her demise as an irreparable loss to the Telugu film industry.

Going down memory lane of his family’s association with Ms. Janaki, actor and son of NTR Nandamuri Balakrishna has said: “Ms.