Padmavati Rao | |
---|---|
Born | 1963[ citation needed ] Delhi, India |
Other names | Akshatha Rao, Pinty |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1978 - present |
Family | Arundathi Nag (sister) |
Padmavati Rao, credited as Akshatha Rao in Kannada films, is an Indian actress, theatre personality, poet, dancer and translator. [1] [2] She is known for her theatre activities and performances in movies including Ondanondu Kaladalli (1978),Geetha (1981),Pardes (1997), Padmaavat (2018) and Tanhaji (2020).
Padmavati was born in Delhi. She is the sister of actress Arundhati Nag. [2]
Rao's debut movie was 1978 Kannada film Ondanondu Kaladalli, directed by Girish Karnad. In 1981, she played the title role of Geetha in the film Geetha, directed by Shankar Nag. She went on to appear in movies including Pardes and Padmaavat. [3] She played Amitabh Bacchan's wife in the critically acclaimed film Te3n, directed by Ribhu Dasgupta. She performed as Jijabai, mother of Shivaji, in the 2020 film Tanhaji.
Rao's career was started with theatre activities. She has conducted and performed plays and workshops across India. She first acted in theatre under the direction of Shankar Nag. She assisted him in Malgudi Days as assistant director, also acted and dubbed for the same project. [4] In her theatre career, Rao has worked with Girish Karnad, M. S. Sathyu, Ramesh Talwar, Shaukat Azmi, A. K. Hanagal and many other theatre personalities. [5] Her theatre work Kitchen Poems, a solo performance, was much appreciated. [6] She has been doing theatre activities for children. [5] [7] [8]
Year | Film | Role | Language | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Ondanondu Kaladalli | Savanthri | Kannada | Debut film |
1981 | Geetha | Geetha | Kannada | |
1997 | Pardes | Narmada | Hindi | |
2016 | Te3n | Nancy | Hindi | |
2018 | Ek Sangaychay | Marathi | ||
Padmaavat | Kunwar Baisa | Hindi | ||
Phamous | Lall's mother | Hindi | ||
2019 | Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal | Bini Noorjehan | Malayalam | |
2020 | Tanhaji | Jijabai | Hindi | |
Raat Akeli Hai | Pramila Singh | Hindi | ||
2021 | Maara | Meenakshi/Mary Aunty | Tamil | Amazon Prime Video Film |
2023 | Sweet Kaaram Coffee | Deva | Tamil | Amazon Prime Video Web Series |
Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. Kannada cinema is based in Gandhi Nagar, Bangalore. The 1934 film Sati Sulochana directed by Y. V. Rao was the first talkie film released in the Kannada language. It was also the first film starring Subbaiah Naidu and Tripuramba, and the first screened in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. It was produced by Chamanlal Doongaji, who in 1932 founded South India Movietone in Bangalore.
Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.
Shankar Nagarakatte was an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, and producer known for his work in Kannada-language films and television. A popular cultural icon of Karnataka, Nag is often referred to as Karate King. He directed the teleserial Malgudi Days, based on novelist R. K. Narayan's short stories and acted in some episodes as well. He won two National Film Awards, four Karnataka State Film Awards and two Filmfare Award South.
Sharada Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kavita Krishnamurthy or Kavita Subramaniam, is an Indian playback and classical singer. She has recorded numerous songs in various Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Odia, Marathi, English, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Nepali, Assamese, Konkani, Punjabi and other languages. She is the recipient of four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, and the Padmashri which she received in 2005. She was awarded a Doctorate for her contributions to Indian music by Bangalore-based Jain University in 2015. In 1999, she married noted violinist L. Subramaniam and resides in Bengaluru.
Anant Nagarkatte is an Indian actor whose predominant contribution has been in Kannada cinema. He has acted in over 300 films which include over 200 Kannada films as well as Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam and English films. He has featured in theatre plays, parallel cinema and television shows.
Arundhati Nag is an Indian actress. She has been involved with multilingual Theatre in India, for over 25 years, first in Mumbai where she got involved with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), and did various productions in Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi theatre, and then in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English, in Bangalore.
Ramesh Bhat is a multiple-award–winning Indian actor. He has worked predominantly in Kannada films and television serials.
Anuradha, known by her stage name Tara, is a National award winning Indian actress, known for her work in Kannada cinema and politics. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2009 and is currently a nominated member of the Karnataka Legislative Council.
Ondanondu Kaladalli is a 1978 Indian Kannada-language epic film co-written and directed by Girish Karnad with soundtrack by Bhaskar Chandavarkar, starring Shankar Nag and Akshatha Rao in their debut. Through this movie, Kavita Krishnamurthy started her singing career as playback singer. The film has influences of the early samurai films of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, to whom Karnad has reportedly acknowledged his indebtedness.
Bhaskar Chandavarkar was an Indian sitar player, academic and film and theatre composer who worked with well-known directors of Indian cinema like Mrinal Sen, Girish Karnad, Aparna Sen, K. G. George and Amol Palekar in various languages including Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Oriya and was known for his blending of Indian classical and western music.
Malgudi Days is an Indian television series that started in 1986, and was filmed in both English and Hindi, based on the 1943 short story collection of the same name by R. K. Narayan. The series was directed by Kannada actor and director Shankar Nag. Carnatic musician L. Vaidyanathan composed the score, while R. K. Narayan's younger brother and acclaimed cartoonist R. K. Laxman was the sketch artist. The series was made by film producer T.S. Narasimhan. In 2006, the series was revived for an additional 15 episodes, which were directed by Kavitha Lankesh.
Uma Shivakumar was an Indian film and theatre character actress, whose career included roles in more than 170 Kannada language films and more than 30 plays. She was nicknamed "Baddi Bangaramma" by audiences, after the popular 1984 film of the same name, in which she portrayed a moneylender.
Odakalu Bimba is a Kannada monodrama by Indian playwright and author Girish Karnad. It was written in 2005 and marked Karnad's return to direction after a period of thirty years. He directed the play with KM Chaitanya
Suresh Urs is an Indian film editor who works predominantly in Kannada and Tamil cinema. He has edited over 700 films and 40 documentaries and television shows. Urs is well known for his association with directors like Girish Karnad, Mani Ratnam, Shankar Nag, T. S. Nagabharana, Girish Kasaravalli, P. Vasu, Bala, Saran and Baraguru Ramachandrappa. He was awarded the National Film Award for Best Editing for his work in Bombay (1995), he is also a recipient of five Karnataka State Film Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. He was also honored to win the Karnataka State Rajyotsava Prashasti. Lifetime Achievement Vishnuvardhan Award from Karnataka Government in 2014.
G. K. Govinda Rao was a writer, intellectual, professor of English and Kannada film actor from Karnataka, India.
Tananam Tananam is a 2006 Indian Kannada-language romantic musical film directed and written by Kavitha Lankesh. The film has Ramya and Rakshita teaming up together for the first time, and introduces Shaam, a Tamil actor, to Kannada cinema. The film was produced by N. M. Suresh and based on a Tamil short story written by Kalki.
Santha Shishunala Sharifa is a 1990 Indian Kannada biographical drama film directed and co-written by T. S. Nagabharana and produced by Srihari Khoday and Mahima Patel for Yajaman Enterprises. The story is based on the life of acclaimed saint poet Shishunala Sharif who wrote several moral poems striving towards social reformation. A collection of Sharif's poems are set to tunes by C. Ashwath, who also did the major playback singing. The soundtrack consisting of 16 poems was extremely popular upon release. The dialogues for this movie was written by Gopala Wajapayi, a well known theatre figure and translator of Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Anant Nag is an Indian actor and occasional film producer who appears as an actor in predominantly in Kannada films and a few Hindi and Telugu films. In a career spanning over 5 decades, he has appeared in over 270 films. After having had a successful theatre career, he made his debut in P. V. Nanjaraja Urs' Kannada film Sankalpa, and Shyam Benegal's Dakhani film Ankur, with the former seeing theatrical release first, in 1973, and won multiple awards at the 1972–73 Karnataka State Film Awards. In G. V. Iyer's 1975 film Hamsageethe, he played the role of Bhairavi Venkatasubbiah, a performance that won critical praise, and the film was awarded the Best Feature Film in Kannada at the 23rd National Film Awards.
Padmaavat is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language historical drama film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Based on the epic poem of the same name by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, it stars Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, a Sinhalese-born Rajput queen known for her beauty, wife of Maharawal Ratan Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor. Sultan Alauddin Khilji, played by Ranveer Singh, hears of her beauty and attacks her kingdom to enslave her. Aditi Rao Hydari, Jim Sarbh, Raza Murad, and Anupriya Goenka featured in supporting roles.
Shankar Nag was an Indian film actor, director, screenwriter and producer known for his work in Kannada cinema. He directed seven Kannada films and one Marathi film. He also wrote the story and screenplay of many of these including a few films that he did not direct. After beginning his acting career in theatre, Nag took to films making his debut in a bit role in the 1978 Marathi anti-superstition drama Sarvasakshi. His Kannada film debut came in the same year with Ondanondu Kaladalli directed by Girish Karnad, in which Nag played the lead, a mercenary named Gandugali. The role that fetched him the Silver Peacock for the Best Actor Award (Male) at the 7th International Film Festival of India. Other than Minchina Ota, he also co-produced two of his directorial ventures — Janma Janmada Anubandha (1980) and Geetha (1981).