Sowcar Janaki

Sankaramanchi Janaki (nee Tekumalla Janaki), known to generations of filmgoers as Sowcar Janaki, was one of the most durable and versatile actors in South Indian cinema. Born on 12 December 1931 in Rajahmundry, then in the Madras Presidency, she grew up in a Kannada-speaking Madhva Brahmin household. Her father, Tekumalla Venkoji Rao, had studied paper manufacturing and chemical engineering in England and worked in the paper industry at Rajahmundry; her mother, Sachi Devi, hailed from Guwahati in Assam. Her younger sister, Krishna Kumari, also became a noted film actress.

Janaki's path into films was neither automatic nor entirely welcome at home. She worked as an A-grade artiste at All India Radio's Madras station. Filmmaker B. N. Reddy noticed her at an AIR event and offered her a screen chance when she was about fifteen; her family refused, regarding acting as unsuitable for a young woman, and arranged her marriage instead. In 1947 she married Sankaramanchi Srinivasa Rao. She later sat her matriculation exams while pregnant and completed studies connected with Gauhati University in Assam. The couple had three children: two daughters and a son. Public family lists name them as Yagna Prabha Koty, Venkataramana Sankaramanchi and Sachi Rao. Her granddaughter Vaishnavi Aravind followed her into acting from the late 1980s.

Her screen career began in earnest with L. V. Prasad's Telugu social drama Shavukaru (1950), opposite a debuting N. T. Rama Rao. The film's title (often rendered Shavukaru / Sowcar) stuck to her for life, partly to distinguish her from V. N. Janaki, and she became "Sowcar Janaki" for the next seven decades. Tamil cinema followed with Valayapathi (1952). She worked as a leading heroine through the 1950s and 1960s in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada, including the Kannada mythological Mahishasura Mardini (1959) with Dr. Rajkumar. She also appeared in Malayalam and a small number of Hindi films (among them Teen Bahuraniyan, 1968).

As South Indian cinema modernised, she shifted without loss of stature into character and maternal roles. Collaborations with K. Balachander were especially defining for Tamil audiences: films such as Neerkumizhi (1965), Edhir Neechal (1968), Iru Kodugal (1969), Kaviya Thalaivi (1970) and later Thillu Mullu (1981). She shared the screen with Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Nagesh and, across decades, with Kamal Haasan from Paarthaal Pasi Theerum (1962) onward; Haasan later called her a maternal figure and "the unignorable talent of South Indian cinema." Telugu highlights included Rojulu Marayi, Kanyasulkam, Doctor Chakravarty, Akka Chellelu, Badi Panthulu and Samsaram Oka Chadarangam. She also produced, notably Kaviya Thalaivi (1970). Beyond cinema she was a serious theatre worker, including long-running Balachander stage plays.

Honours accumulated across states and finally at the national level: Kalaimamani (Tamil Nadu), Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress (Iru Kodugal), Nandi Awards for supporting work, Filmfare and SIIMA lifetime awards for South Indian cinema, Karnataka's Rajyotsava Award (2015), and in January 2022 the Padma Shri for art. Receiving the civilian honour, she told the Times of India that among many career awards the Padma Shri "tops everything because it is a national honour," and that it had come in her ninetieth year. President Ram Nath Kovind presented the award at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 28 March 2022. Her film count approached and then passed the symbolic 400 mark with the Tamil comedy Biskoth (2020); her final credited big-screen appearance was the 2023 Telugu film Anni Manchi Sakunamule. Television work included the 1991 Doordarshan serial Oorarinda Rahasyam and later Telugu serials such as Varudhini Parinayam (2013).

In a 2021 interview with The Hindu she spoke with characteristic bluntness about mortality: "Life is uncertain. You have to exit when the curtain is down. Be prepared and go peacefully; that's my only wish." On 19 August 2026 she was admitted to Kauvery Hospital, Alwarpet, Chennai, with age-related illness and placed under intensive care; Nadigar Sangam president Nassar and colleagues visited her. She died at the hospital on 21 August 2026 at about 1:59 p.m. IST, aged 94. Nassar confirmed the death; remains were kept for homage at Cenotaph Road, Teynampet, and last rites were held on 22 August 2026 at Besant Nagar Electric Crematorium, with state honours reported after a Nadigar Sangam request. She was survived by three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her husband, Sankaramanchi Srinivasa Rao, had predeceased her.

Tributes came from across the industry and politics: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and actor Vijay via the CMO account; Kamal Haasan; Jr NTR; Chiranjeevi; Prabhu Deva; Radhika Sarathkumar; and many others. The enduring public image is of an actor who refused to be trapped in one language or one type, who reinvented herself from heroine to character force, and who treated craft, stage discipline and plain speaking as duties rather than ornaments.