Mamta Mohandas reveals only one person from the film industry visited her during cancer treatment

Actor Mamta Mohandas has opened up about one of the most emotional moments from her early struggle with cancer, revealing that Suhasini Maniratnam was the only film-industry colleague who visited her after she completed a bone marrow transplant at the age of 24.

The Malayalam actor shared the memory while appearing on the ‘Second Sunrises’ podcast hosted by Jos Alukkas, where she was joined by Suhasini herself.

A visit she never forgot

The 41-year-old, who was emerging as a prominent South Indian actor in 2009 when she was diagnosed with cancer, recalled being taken by surprise when Suhasini called her family and asked to meet her shortly after she left a month-long isolation following her transplant.

She told Suhasini on the podcast that she had wondered why the veteran actor wished to see her, especially as she had never worked with director Mani Ratnam, Suhasini’s husband.

“It was incredibly meaningful,” she said, embracing Suhasini during the conversation. “I had only just stepped out of 30 days of isolation, and you were the only person from the industry who came.”

Suhasini on her impulse to visit

When asked what made her visit a young actor she barely knew, Suhasini admitted she still cannot explain the instinct that led her there.

“Some things have no answers,” she said. “I remember the way you spoke to me that day – it stayed with me. And I still don’t know why I felt I had to come.”

She also recalled a moment with Mohandas’s mother, who had expressed a mother’s anguish with the words, “Why can’t God give whatever she has to me instead and make her alright?”

Marriage and the pressure of expectations

The actor also used the discussion to reflect on her personal life, including her brief marriage to Prajith Padmanabhan, whom she wed in 2011 and legally separated from the following year.

Mohandas said she rushed into marriage soon after completing her first round of cancer treatment and returning to the film industry, driven by societal expectations and a sense of urgency after her illness.

“I wanted to fast-forward my life,” she said, noting that she had little experience with relationships and dating at the time.

She recounted meeting only a few men before her marriage, including one from the film industry who asked her out while he was already engaged – something she discovered later from his brother. The dishonesty, she said, left a lasting impression.

Mohandas said she met Padmanabhan again at his twin sister’s wedding, remembering him faintly from her early teens. The connection was immediate.

“He asked, ‘Why don’t we get married next?’” she recalled. “I told him to speak to my father. It was that simple.”

However, the marriage lasted only six months before she decided to leave. “It was not an easy decision,” she added.