When MGR scolded a Tamil actor to offer liquor to Saroja Devi

Veteran South Indian actor B. Saruja Devi, who breathed at the age of 87 on Monday (July 14, 2025), was once offered alcohol by a co-star on the set of a Tamil film, which angered MG Ramachandran (MGR).

Saroj Devi was a leading MGR woman in 25 films, out of which 23 were box office hits, long before a small Jayalalithaa-who would also go to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister-entered the scene and eventually turned her as an on-screen heroine of MGR. In Arasa KattalaiOne of the notable MGR films, both Saroj Devi and Jayalalithaa shared screen space.

Recalling a moment during a film shoot in Ooty (Udhagamandalam), Saroja Devi once explained how a co-actor offered him a drink to help him deal with the chilli season. MGR, known for its disciplined lifestyle and strong values, listens to exchange and was infected.

Actor Saroj Devi and MG Ramachandran in Tamil film ‘Parkkum Pavai’. Photo Credit: Hindu Archives

“He (MGR) was a tettaler and would never participate in gambling, dance, or saw scenes he considered porn,” Saroja Devi said Border Magazine, a sister publication HinduIn an interview after MGR’s death in December 1987. “We were shooting in Ooty. It was extremely cold and another female artist offered me a drink, saying that it would keep me warm. MGR heard the conversation, took the actress aside and apparently gave her a dressing. She sweated in that cold weather.”

Although MGR and Saroja Devi participated in 1967 due to misunderstanding and never acted together again, their personal honor did not end. Saroj Devi, who later settled in Bengaluru, remembered that after her husband’s death, MGR met her and also attended her adopted daughter’s wedding. Every year on 7 January – a date that he considered lucky – MGR will call him to wish him a happy birthday

He credited MGR to give a big break in cinema and establish it in his discipline, which helped him maintain a long and successful career.