Actor Jayasurya with his wife, Saritha.


TELEVISION GAVE me my life and my wife, says the film actor, Jayasurya. He took his own time in narrating how he discovered Saritha, his life partner. "A few years back, her grandmother spoke to me on the phone-in programme on ACV. She also introduced to me all members of her family, following which both the families became close," he says. We told them that we wanted to shift to Kochi city, from Pettah in the outskirts, where we were staying. And they told us about the vacant flat in their apartment complex, into which we moved in. Love grew, but our parents did not know. We decided to wait till Saritha completed her M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Bangalore. I visited their flat and told her family that I wished to marry her, before telling my parents of our decision. There was opposition from both sides, but we stood our ground, Jayasurya added. The neighbours got wedded four months back in Kochi.
Saritha never thought that she would marry a film actor. "It was not love at first sight. We talked about a lot of things and concluded that we could get along well. Jayasurya came into my life at a time when I had lost my father. He enlivened the family with his pranks - this made us get closer. Even now he makes fun of my grandmother," says Saritha, who is looking for a job in Kochi.
She says that he is very childish and easy-going. Jayasurya saw to it that he chatted up his wife all though the interview. He talked of how the Kottayam bus stand reminded him of his mimicry days, since he even used to sleep there, after having missed the last bus to Kochi.
Jayasurya, who played a dumb painter in Oomapenninu Uriyada Payyan, his debut film, has just returned to Kerala from Chennai after completing the shooting for Vasool Raja MBBS, the Tamil version of Munnabai MBBS, the Hindi movie which starred Sanjay Dutt. "I also act as a cancer patient in a movie in which Kamal Hassan plays the lead role. I feel that he is a university in himself as far as cinema is concerned," says the actor, whose debut movie was shot in Tamil and Kannada .
Being a mimicry artiste has helped him in his career. "I had taken care not to mimic super stars, lest I imitate their voice in movies. I studied the mannerisms of dumb people before acting in Oomapenninu... Mimicry is part of me. Even now, I go for stage shows and private functions," he says, adding that his sister-in-law, Saranya, mimics him.
From Oomapenninu... to his latest release, Chathikkatha Chandu, has been a long ride. The couple plan to combine their honeymoon and a few stage shows in Dubai and in the U.S. As of now, Jayasurya cannot think of anything but a career in movies.