If you are a music lover, you will start singing this song the moment you begin to read these lines: “Maate Mantramu Manase Bandhamu. Ee Mamathe Ee Samathe Mangala Vaadyamu”...

It’s one of those evergreen classics of the music maestro Ilayaraja from the blockbuster movie Seethakoka Chilaka. The film was first made in Tamil which was called “Alaigal Oivathillai”, with Radha, the charismatic actress of those times in the female lead. Not just in Telugu cinema, but she was a busy star in Kollywood and Mollywood too. Radha and Karthik were a hit pair and the film was a huge success in Malyalam as well. Later as we know, it was remade in Telugu as Seethakoka Chilaka. Now, one might ask why Radha went missing in the Telugu remake of the movie as actress Muchcharla Aruna was paired opposite Karthik. Many had the same doubt and few were disappointed too. Actually director Bharathi Raja never had any intentions of replacing Radha, but it was only because of her examinations. She had to complete her exams first and the dates clashed with her schedule. She chose exams over films and that left Aruna with the biggest blockbuster of her career.