Sundar Rao Nadkarni Biography 
Sundar Rao Nadkarni was a filmmaker and actor associated with Tamil cinema in the era of silent and early talkies. He has also done a few movies in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada. He was also an editor, cinematographer and film producer, best remembered as the director of Haridas (1944 film), one of the milestone works of Tamil cinema, which received record-breaking collection. IBN Live included Haridas in its list of 100 greatest Indian films of all time, and the movie was entirely re-coloured manually and released in year 1946. The movie starring M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, T. R. Rajakumari and N. C. Vasanthakokilam, holds the record of being the first film to run continuously for 110 weeks at a single theatre.
Sundar Rao Nadkarni was born in Mangalore of present-day Karnataka. He belonged to a Konkani speaking family. He started his film journey as an actor during silent era, before he took up editing, cinematographer and film direction. He excelled as a film director, and is one of the most successful amil directors of early Tamil talkies. He moved to Mumbai to take up film direction, but returned to Tamil Nadu and settled in Coimbatore where he continued with his movies. Film producer Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar played an important role to bring him back to Tamil cinema. He has also directed a few silent movies for production houses in Mumbai, before he moved back. Qurbani, Teer-e-Qatil, Zindagi Nu Jugar, Baaz Bahadur etc are a few among them.
As a film director, he worked for movies since the silence era in the late 1920s. Maya Na Rang released in 1928 was his first film as a film director, followed by Randhir, Kaliko No Kop, Dhoomketu etc. His career flourished in the late 1930s, and he rose to prominence in the 1940s. For 1939 movie, Shantha Sakkubai, he worked as Director, editor, actor and singer. In 1963, he directed Santha Thukaram, a Kannada film which won National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada. Apart from Haridas, he directed Mahadhevi, Azhagi, Valmiki, En Manaivi etc.
Published: July 28, 2018
Updated: July 28, 2018
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