Kanakadurga

Kanakadurga Biography

Kanakadurga is a south Indian film actress, best known for playing supporting roles. She also plays character roles in TV soaps, in Malayalam and Tamil languages. As a film actress, she predominantly worked in Malayalam and Tamil movies, and was quite active in the 1970s and 1980s. She entered films in the late 1960s. Tamil movie, Oli Vilakku (1968) marked her acting debut. She was married to Malayalam cinematographer Hemachandran. She has one daughter - Maanasa Hemachandran, who is married Tamil actor Vikranth, actor Vijay’s cousin. As a film actress, Kanakadurga is best recognized for the evergreen song filmed on her - ‘Kalyana Prayathil Pennungal Choodunna' in the film, ‘Nellu’ which came out in the year 1974.

She was born in the state of Andhra Pradesh, and her family members have worked in Telugu film industry. She was first spotted by ace director K. Vishwanath who made a visit to her grandfather in pursuit of a location for his new Telugu movie. Kanakadurga was first seen in Oli Vilakku (1968) in an uncredited role, the Tamil remake of Hindi blockbuster, Phool Aur Patthar. After that she appeared in brief roles in Tamil movies such as Savaale Samali, Arunodhayam, Apoorva Raagangal etc.

As a film actress, she mostly worked in Malayalam movies, and has more than 30 movies to her credit. Nirthashala (1972) marked her Malayalam film debut, followed by Mazhakkaaru (1973) and Nellu (1974), where she played supporting roles. Her role as Kurumatti in Nellu was a path breaking role of this film actress, and after that she got handful of movies in Malayalam. Very soon she turned a very successful actress of Malayalam. ‘Mazhakkaaru’, ‘Rasaleela’, ‘Nurayam Pathayum’, ‘Mohiniyaattam’ and ‘Makaravilakku’ are a few noted roles.

Published: September 17, 2018

Updated: September 17, 2018