R. Nagendra Rao

R. Nagendra Rao Biography

R. Nagendra Rao was a great theatre personality and cine artist associated with south Indian film industry. He exhibited his talents as a film actor, screen writer, music composer, film director as well as stage actor. One of the influential figures of South Indian Film Industry, for the movie Hannele Chiguridaga (1968), Rao won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor. Rao is a recipient of Padma Sri for his contributions to Indian cinema. Of his four children, his second son R. N. Krishna Prasad is a cinematographer, third son R. N. Jayagopal is a screenwriter and lyricist while the youngest, R. N. Sudarshan is an actor associated with south Indian cinema.

Rao was born on 23 June 1896 at Holalkere, Kingdom of Mysore, British India. He started his career at the age of 8 as a stage actor associated with Kannada cinema. Started off as a child artist, he later moved to adult roles. During younger days he portrayed female mythological characters while as an adult actor, powerful male roles. A. V. Varadacharya's Ratnavali Drama Company and Chamundeshwari Company in Mysore are the major troupes with which he worked as an actor.

With the era of Indian talkies, he moved to Mumbai in the early 1930s and made his film debut with Tamil films - Parijata Pushpaharanam (1932), Narada (1932), Kovalan (1933) and Telugu film - Ramadasu (1933). His first break to movies was given by P. K. Raja Sandow, and Rao played both lead roles and supporting roles. Then he returned to Bangalore and started Shri Sahitya Samrajya Nataka Mandali aside Subbaiah Naidu. He played the role of Raavan in the first Kannada talkie - Sati Sulochana. Satya Harishchandra in 1943 marked his new career beginning as a film producer, director and actor. After mid-1960s, he moved to character roles.

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Updated: February 05, 2016