Jayaram is currently doing promotion rounds for Parimala & Co, Pandiraj’s Tamil comedy releasing soon. An interview he gave to a Tamil YouTube channel during this promotional stretch has found its way across social media — specifically the part where he describes meeting Sakshi Dhoni at a cricket match in Chennai and discovering an unexpected connection.
He was sitting at a table at the match when he spotted Sakshi walking toward him from a distance. He pointed her out to the person sitting next to him, with no expectation of being recognised. “She ran toward me, touched my feet, and said, ‘Sir, I am your big fan.'” Jayaram says he was so taken aback that his first thought was she must have mistaken him for someone else. He asked her to confirm. She did.
Then came the explanation. A Malayalam nanny had worked in the Dhoni household when their daughter Ziva was young, and she had sung Malayalam lullabies to the child. One of them was Ambalapuzha Unnikannanod Nee — a song from Jayaram’s film. “That song alone would put the child to sleep,” Sakshi told him. She had even written it down and kept it. The song was from his film, and for a stretch of Ziva Dhoni’s early childhood, it was the one thing that worked at bedtime.
Sachin Remembered His Name
The Sachin Tendulkar story that follows is quieter but leaves the same impression. At a Kalyan Jewellers event in Kerala, Jayaram was introduced to Sachin. They exchanged pleasantries. Half an hour later, Sachin got up from where he was sitting and came to find Jayaram — to clarify whether he was from cinema or sports. He had remembered the name across that gap. “That he remembered my name even after half an hour, without even being sure who I was — that surprised me greatly,” Jayaram said.
He also mentioned that Sanju Samson is a close friend of his son, that he was the first person to imitate Sanju’s voice before anyone else started doing it, and that he takes genuine pride in Samson’s rise.
Parimala & Co is releasing soon. Jayaram is clearly not short of stories to tell on the promotional circuit.
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