The unknown facet of Delhi Ganesh

Delhi Ganesh always backed young directors

One thing that Delhi Ganesh knew when he was still active was that filmmakers, co-artistes and the audience loved him and what he brought to the table, be it in plays, TV serials, short films and movies. And that those in the neighbourhood loved their everyday conversations with him. Two days before his passing, his family said he was at the dubbing studio, and two days after, he was supposed to be shooting. And so, Ganesh went the way he always wanted to — knowing he was still cherished as a performer and person.

By now, everyone has written about how the ex-Corporal of the Indian Air Force, was inimitable as an actor. Sure, he was talented, disciplined. But, above all, he was bold enough to experiment with a range of roles, even when he had already made a mark in comedy. Like the religious preacher-singer of Ananthu’s Sigaramm (1991), who begs a young fan (Ramya Krishnan) to sleep with him, because he can’t marry and he’s afraid he would die without knowing female company. The desperation before the act and the guilt and fear when he finds out she’s pregnant — who else would agree to play a distinctly unlikeable character in a manner that evokes pity? Or the intensely jealous elderly man of director Vasanth S Sai’s Payasam in Navarasa (2021) on Netflix, who does something that evokes disgust. Both Ananthu and Vasanth are from the K. Balachander school, and have seen what Delhi Ganesh is capable of, from close quarters — after all, he made his film debut with KB’s Pattina Pravesam (1976).

And, in all 48 years in cinema, Ganesh never lost his creative generosity, constantly working in the movies or short films of up and coming directors, for a fraction of his market rate. This act of his is probably why my phone kept buzzing yesterday with voice notes, some of them with a visible tremble, from many young directors. And, also probably why Delhi Ganesh is that ‘cool’ actor for children who grew up in the 2000s. For them, he IS Alfred Pennnyworth in Put Chutney’s What If Batman Comes to Chennai. Age did not wither his infinite variety, wisdom or make him bitter.

Actor-writer-director and mimicry artiste K. Manikandan who directed him in the heartwarming Narai Ezhuthum Suyasaridham (2015), now on Sony LIV, remains struck by the actor’s professionalism. “I was 21 years old, he would have been in his early 70s. The only reply to any instruction would be ‘Appadeengala sir, saringa sir’ (okay sir, sure sir). We paid him a small portion of his market rate, we were a four-member crew and shot with a 5D camera, but he gave it the same dedication he would, to a movie. And when I handed him the balance payment on the last day, he said, ‘Mani, keep it. See if you can use it for the film’. Who does that in this day and age?”

Manikandan is known for his mimicry of Delhi Ganesh, but he says Ganesh was an amazing mimicry artiste as well. “He would imitate the voices of Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam, he would show us how he got the Palakkad dialect of Michael Madana Kama Rajan (MMKR), he kept the set a happy place. He shared trivia you would have never come to hear of otherwise,” shares Manikandan, adding that this was the period when the veteran actor wondered if he should give up acting, because he was not getting too many interesting roles and was feeling stagnant. He would not know then, that he had a decade more of work left in him.

Director RS Prasanna of Kalyana Samayal Saadham (2013) and who is working on his directorial Sitaare Zameen Par, starring Aamir Khan, in Hindi, speaks fondly of the time spent with Delhi Ganesh when working on a college project, and later on KSS. 

In 2010, Aravind SA, now popular as a comic, reached out to Ganesh for the short film Dhuruva Natchathiram he was making as part of his film direction course in LV Prasad Film and TV Academy in Chennai. Prasanna and Meenakshi Ramani, now his wife, were part of the cast. In a post on X, Aravind said: “I owe everything in this journey of mine to you… I hope to give back as much as you gave to us youngsters”.