Kanchana

Kanchana Biography

Kanchana is a former actress of south Indian movies who was active in the decades of 1960’s and 1970’s. She has acted in all south Indian languages as well as a few Hindi films and has worked in more than 150 movies. She was born as Vasundhara Devi in Chennai on August 16, 1939. She retired from films in the early 1980s. She was presented with the MGR award in 2005 and ANR Swarna Kankanam award in 2007 for her contributions to the entertainment industry. Kalyana Mandapam, Pavitra Bandam and Manchivadu are her most memorable roles.

She was born as Vasundhara Devi in a wealthy family originally from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. The family later settled in Chennai and Kanchana was born there. She received formal training in Indian classical dance forms at an early age. She learnt Bharata Natyam and Music. She has appeared as a child actress in several Malayalam movies during 1950’s and early 1960’s. Failure of her father’s business prompted her to take the job of an air hostess to support the family. She was discovered by the film director C. V. Sridhar on a plane where he was a passenger. He gave the lead role in his film Kaadhalikka Neramillai in 1963. As already there was an actress in south Indian films with the name Vasundhara Devi, the director changed her name to Kanchana.

Her role of Uttara in the film Veerabhimanyu (1965) along with Shobhan Babu placed her among the heroines’ list of most established actresses. Very soon, she became one of the busy actresses and came to be known as ‘Queen of the Seventies’ in South Indian film industry. She has acted with Krishna in glamorous roles for the movies - Ave Kallu, Nenante Nene and Dharma Daata. Ananda Bhairavi and Shrimad Virat Veerabrahmendra Swami Charitra are other noted works.

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Updated: July 01, 2018