Pandari Bai

Pandari Bai Biography

Pandari Bai is one of the legendary actresses of south Indian cinema who acted in nearly 1500 movies belonging to Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi languages. She has been active in the film industry for nearly 50 years giving many memorable performances, from leading heroine to lovable mother of many stars. Bai also acted in a couple of Kannada TV serials Amma and Manethana produced by her sister Mynavathy's company Yantra Media.

Pandari Bai was born in Bhatkal, Uttara Kannada of Karnataka in the year 1930. Her father was a stage actor, drawing master and a Harikatha exponent. He was a teacher who gave up that career to devote himself to art field. He started his own drama troupe, Amba Prasadika Nataka Mandali. His son had his own troupe, Adarsha Nataka Sabha. Pandari Bai learnt Harikatha from her father at a younger age and started reciting at the age of 10. Once a play was to commence and the audience had already filled up. But the heroine was absent. Her brother who owned the troupe got a quick idea and he brought his younger sister to stage to play the role. She was hardly in the teens. As she was familiar with songs and dialogues, she made his role successful though it shocked orthodox and conservative parents. It was the successful debut of Pandari Bai as an actress.

Later she became a successful actress giving many memorable performances onscreen. During 1970’s she shifted to character roles and has played the mother role of MGR in Tamil and Rajesh Khanna in Hindi.  "Parasakthi" (Tamil) released in 1952 is one of her memorable performances. "Kula Deivam", "Thirumbi Paar" and "Andha Naal" are a few more to name.  She appeared in Hindi film Bahaar, where her name was shown as Padmini.

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Updated: January 23, 2014