Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi-language films, he is recipient of several accolades, including five National Film Awards, eight Nandi Awards, eight Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, five Filmfare Awards South, four SIIMA Awards, three CineMAA Awards, and three Vijay Awards.
After working in stage shows and television in Kannada for a few years, Raj ventured into films. He made his debut in Tamil cinema through Duet (1994), by K. Balachander, and has since been a commercially successful film star in Tamil. In remembrance, he named his production company Duet Movies.[3][4] Apart from his mother tongue Kannada, Prakash Raj's fluency in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi and English has placed him among the most sought after actors in Indian cinema.[5]
A polyglot, he played a variety of roles, most notably as the antagonist and, of late, as a character actor. Prakash, as an actor has won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for Mani Ratnam's Iruvar, a National Film Award – Special Mention for the Telugu film Antahpuram, directed by Krishna Vamsi in 1998[6] and a National Film Award for Best Actor in 2007 for his role in Kanchivaram, a Tamil film directed by Priyadarshan,[7]
As a producer, he has won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada for Puttakkana Highway, directed by his long-time theatre friend B. Suresh in 2011. Prakash was also the host of Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi during the show's second season.[8]
Main article: Prakash Raj filmography
Prakash Raj acted in back-to-back stage shows for ?300 a month in the initial stages of his career, when he joined Kalakshetra, Bengaluru, and he has 2,000 street theatre performances to his credit.[9]
Prakash began his television career with Doordarshan serials such as Bisilu Kudure (Kannada) and Guddada Bhootha (Tulu and Kannada). He later took up supporting roles in Kannada films such as Ramachari, Ranadheera, Nishkarsha and Lockup Death. He was noticed for his dialogue delivery and histrionics. His breakthrough role came in Harakeya Kuri, directed by K. S. L. Swamy starring Vishnuvardhan, with whom he had acted in other films such as Mithileya Seetheyaru, Muthina Haara and Nishkarsha. His performance was noticed by Geetha, the lead heroine of the film, who introduced Prakash to her mentor K. Balachander, a Tamil director. He acted under the screen name "Prakash Rai" in Kannada films and was given the name "Prakash Raj" by K. Balachander for his debut Tamil film Duet,[20] which saw him playing his first major role.
Prakash re-entered Kannada films through Nagamandala in 1997, directed by T. S. Nagabharana, which was selected for the Indian Panorama in the International Film Festival in 1997. He was also a part of Mani Ratnam's stage show Netru, Indru, Naalai. In 1997, he acted in Mani Ratnam's biopic Iruvar. The movie dealt with the relationship between politicians M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He starred in many Malayalam films in 1996: The Prince, Indraprastham and Oru Yathramozhi, the last of which released in 1997. He also acted in Pandippada, with Dilip in 2005, Thekkekara Superfast in 2003, Keerthichakra in 2006, Amal Neerad's Anwar and Shyamaprasad's sensational movie Elecktra in 2010. For most of his Mollywood movies, he will render his own voice. He was also seen in the movie Achayans along with Jayaram.
He acted in many Telugu films, including Antahpuram (1998), which earned him a National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention.
He played an important role in Venkat Prabhu's Saroja. In 2008, he produced a film titled Abhiyum Naanum and played an important character in it. He remade the movie in Kannada as Naanu Nanna Kanasu.
Prakash Raj also acted in a 2004-released multi starrer hit film Khakee along with Amithabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar & Tushar Kapoor, playing Assistant Commissioner of Police Shrikant Naidu, Angre's main mole in the police force. Since Wanted (2009), Prakash Raj has been a regular villain in Hindi language Bollywood movies, including Singham (2011), as Jaikant Shikre, Dabangg 2, as Bachcha Singh, Mumbai Mirror (2013), as Shetty, and the movie Policegiri, opposite Sanjay Dutt and Prachi Desai, as Nagori.
He acted with actor Kamal Haasan in Vasool Raja MBBS which was a critical and commercial success. Then he paired again with Kamal Haasan in Thoongaa Vanam (2015). He acted in the Telugu movie Bharat Ane Nenu (2018). He will be seen in Major which is directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka.[21]
He took on the mantle of director with Naanu Nanna Kanasu, in Kannada in 2010, for which he was the joint producer. The film completed 125 days successfully in the theatres across Karnataka, becoming the biggest hit of the year.[22] He was nominated for the Filmfare South "Best Director" category for his first film.
He then directed the Telugu and Tamil bilingual film Dhoni. In 2014, he directed the multilingual film Oggarane (in Kannada), Ulavacharu Biryani (in Telugu) and Un Samayal Arayil (in Tamil).[23][24][25][26] The Tamil and the Telugu versions didn't do any miracles at the box office, while Oggarane, the Kannada version became the runaway blockbuster hit of the year.[27][28][29][30][31][32]
Prakash became a film producer beginning with the Tamil film Dhaya (2002), in which he starred with actress Meena. It earned him a Special Jury National Award for his performance. He later produced films in Tamil such as Naam (2003), Azhagiya Theeye (2004), Kanda Naal Mudhal (2005), Poi (2006), Mozhi (2007), Velli Thirai and Abhiyum Naanum, which won many Tamil Nadu State Awards in 2008, and Inidhu Inidhu in 2010.
The first non-Tamil film that he produced was his directorial debut in Kannada Naanu Nanna Kanasu in 2010, a remake of his own Tamil production Abhiyum Naanum, for which he was the joint producer, along with his long-time Bengaluru theatre friend, Kannada director-producer B. Suresh.[33] In 2011, he acted and jointly produced the Kannada film Puttakkana Highway, again with B. Suresh, who directed the film. It was a milestone in Prakash's production career since Puttakkana Highway won him the National Award for Best Regional Film for the year 2010–2011,[34] and an award in the fourth Bengaluru International Film Festival of 2011.[35]
In 2011, he produced the Tamil version of the Tamil-Telugu bilingual Payanam in 2011, starring Nagarjuna Akkineni and himself. In 2012, he produced two Tamil films; Mayilu and Dhoni. In 2013, he produced a Telugu-Tamil bilingual film; Gouravam. He produced a multilingual film Oggarane (Kannada), Ulavacharu Biryani (Telugu) and Un Samayal Arayil (Tamil) in 2014.[23][24][25][26] Oggarane became a huge blockbuster hit that year.[27][28][29][30][31][32]
Prakash Raj adopted the villages of Kondareddypalle in Mahabubnagar District, Telangana state[36] and Bandlarahatti in Chitradurga district, Karnataka state.[37]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Prakash Raj
Prakash Raj started his active political movement with the hashtag #justasking on social media after his friend Gauri Lankesh's assassination incident in September 2017.
He contested in the 2019 Indian general election as an independent candidate for the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency.[38][39] Raj lost the election, securing around 28,906 Votes (2.41%) in the election.[40]