Shylashri

A name which had its impact, but has diminished over the years, Shylashri, is from the ages of retro and in her brief stint of 10 years in Kannada movies, she did a total of 21 movies. She had made her debut in a Kannada movie titled ‘Sandhya Raga’. Though the role was minute, this movie that was released in 1966 gave her the necessary temperament to establish herself in the Kannada Movie Industry.

In her further career that stretched for a short span of 10 years, she worked with the Big Guns of the industry like Dr. Rajkumar, Rajesh, Sudarshan, Udaykumar, and directors like M.R. Vittal, K.S.L. Swamy, A.V. SheshagiriRao, Geethapriya and many others.

Though one may argue that her role in Sandhya Raga was too small to be noticed, she did raise her bar of performance in her next movie titled ‘Bangarada Hoovu’. This movie made her get enough traction in Kannada cinema as she was cast with the then superstar and National Award Winning actor Dr. Rajkumar.

Though this movie pushed her career forward, she is remembered for her amazing performance in the National Award winning film ‘Naguva Hoovu’, which hit the theaters in 1971. Starring R.N. Sudarshan and Shylashri, the movie revolved around a nurse who falls for a doctor, but detriments her love for the Son of the Hospital’s owner, who’s also a Cancer patient.

The story of the movie, produced by the male lead R.N. Sudarshan and directed by R.N.K. Prasad, was scripted by Shylashri herself. Apart from Kannada movies, she made a noticeable contribution to Tamil movies like Motor Sundaram Pillai, Dharishanam, Panthayam etc. Her roles have been in the forte of playing a heroine, second heroine, vamp, dancer and supporting actor. She married her NaguvaHoovu co-star and Kannada movie producer R.N. Sudarshan and now lives in Bangalore with him.