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Friendship beyond silver screen

Long before Nedumudi Venu and Kaithapram became colleagues in cinema, they were friends.

The actor and the lyricist had stayed together under the leaking roof of a dilapidated part of a house in Thiruvananthapuram.

Kaithapram recalled those hard times at a function in Kozhikode where Nedumudi was presented the Balan K. Nair award. "At that time I was a priest in a temple in Thiruvananthapuram and was getting a salary of Rs.500 per month, while Venu was working with a newspaper at an even lesser salary," he said.

"But years later, when he became a star after the commercial success of Vidaparayum Munpe, there were people who promised me favours if I could get them his dates for their films."

Kaithapram also recited a poem he wrote during those days to make the evening even more memorable to his friend. "But I wasn't even supposed to speak at the award function," he said.

"I had gone there to see my friend honoured and was sitting among the audience before I was invited to the stage."

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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