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Top Old Kannada Actors

Dr Rajkumar, Dr Vishnuvardhan, Srinath, and Ambarish are the toppers in the list of Old Kannada Actors. Rajkumar’s sons, Shiva Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar, grabbed the audience’s attention like their father. Shiva Rajkumar plays various roles and picks multiple genre movies. Anant Nag is one of the versatile actors from the old generation. He has played in multiple languages and has been one of the actors with a low failure rate. Shankar Nag is a talented actor, director, writer and producer. His performance in Malgudi Days by RK Narayan is one of the audiences' favorites. Ravichandran, Ramesh Aravind, and Upendra are a few actors who prefer doing unique script movies like some of the Old Kannada Actors like Dr Rajkumar.

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1. Vishnuvardhan

Vishnuvardhan was born in Mysore. He attended high school and obtained degree at the National College, Bangalore. He adopted the name Vishnuvardhan at the insistence of Puttanna Kanagal, who was like is godfather and mentor, who also directed his maiden film, Naagarahaavu. This gave him the recognition of the ‘angry young man of Kannada cinema. “Ramachaari”, the character Vishnuvardhan played in Nagarahaavu, is still considered as among the best roles that have donned in Kannada cinema to date. Vishnuvardhan did not look back since then and went on to win many state honors and five film fare awards. Vishnuvardhan was popularly called by his fans as Sahasa Simha and Abhinava Bhargava.Vishnuvardhan, a versatile ...

Date of Birth: 18-09-1950

Date of Death: 30-12-2009

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor, Supporting Actor

Vishnuvardhan Biography

Date of Birth: 18-09-1950

Date of Death: 30-12-2009

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor, Supporting Actor

2. Shankar Nag

Shankar Nag, most influential and talented Kannada actor and director, who acted in around 90 Kannada movies, in a career spanning 12 years from 1978 to 1990. Shankar also produced R.K. Narayan's novel, Malgudi Days as a teleserial and also acted in it. He was also a part a Kannada theater. He co-wrote 22 June 1897, an Indian national award-winning Marathi film. One of his films, Autoraja is appreciated by the audience to the level that even now his posters are there on auto rickshaws of Karnataka even after 25 years of his death. He was also focused towards social improvement as his films portrayed that. He was of friendly nature and loved by all. Shankar Nag was a versatile personality and has left his ...

Date of Birth: 09-11-1954

Date of Death: 30-09-1990

Star Sign: Scorpio

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

Shankar Nag Biography

Date of Birth: 09-11-1954

Date of Death: 30-09-1990

Star Sign: Scorpio

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

3. Upendra Rao

Upendra Rao is an Indian actor, who was born on 18th September 1967 as the second son of the Rao family. Not only an actor, Upendra is an established director, producer, screenwriter, playback singer and a lyricist in Kannada cinema. He was born in Koteshwara, Kundapur, Mysore State to a very poor family. His parents are Manjunatha Rao and Anusuya. He is also known as Uppi. He has an elder brother named Sudheendra Rao. He completed his higher studies at APS College of Commerce in Bangalore and obtained his B. Com degree. During his college days, he performed in college stage plays. He is married to Priyanka Trivedi and she was Miss Kolkata in 1996. They have worked together in Telugu film Raa and H2O. Upendra and Priyanka have tw...

Date of Birth: 18-09-1967

Age: 57

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

Upendra Rao Biography

Date of Birth: 18-09-1967

Age: 57

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

4. Ambareesh

The South has been famous for throwing up actor politicians, and the tradition of NTRs, MGRs and Jayalalithas continues even today, with Ambareesh, being the latest in the chain - but this time coming from Karnataka. Another southern trait he seems to have borrowed is the fascination for using single names. In his own case, he uses the name “Ambareesh” in place of his unwieldy real name: Malavalli Huchche Gowda Amarnath. He seems to have managed well in his dual role as a busy film actor and an equally active politician, having been ministers both in the central and state governments at various points of time. The roles that he has portrayed in his over 200 films, spanning all three major southern languages, have in m...

Date of Birth: 29-05-1952

Date of Death: 24-11-2018

Star Sign: Gemini

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

Ambareesh Biography

Date of Birth: 29-05-1952

Date of Death: 24-11-2018

Star Sign: Gemini

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

5. Shiva Rajkumar

Shiva Rajkumar is the populous Kannada actor, who was born in the year 1962. He is the son of the veteran Kannada actor Raj Kumar. Shiva Raj Kumar was born in Chennai and he is the eldest one in the family. Raghavendra Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar are his younger brothers and he has two sisters too. He did his graduation in chemistry in Chennai, New College. After completing his graduation, he joined M. G. R. Film and Television Training Institute to learn acting. He is also a Kuchipudi dancer. He made his debut through the movie Anand in Kannada. This movie released in the year 1986 and Shiva got a good name in that movie. He is celebrating his silver jubilee in the...

Date of Birth: 12-07-1962

Age: 62

Star Sign: Cancer

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor, Actor

Shiva Rajkumar Biography

Date of Birth: 12-07-1962

Age: 62

Star Sign: Cancer

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor, Actor

6. Jaggesh

Yathiraj Jaggesh is an Indian actor, director, and producer. He was born on 17th March 1963. He was born at Turuvekere, Tumkur, Karnataka, India. He works in the Kannada film industry. He is famous for his screen name as “Navarasa Nayaka.” It means that master of nine emotions. He started his career in the year 1978. He is a member of Legislative Assembly, Turuvekere. Yathiraj Jaggesh made his debut in the year 1983 in the movie ‘Ibbani Karagithu’ in a small role to appearing as a hero in ‘Banda Nanna Ganda.’ He started getting his success in old movies ‘Tharle Nan Maga,’ ‘Super Nan Manga,’ ‘Server Somanna,’ and many more. He started his cinema career as an a...

Date of Birth: 17-03-1963

Age: 61

Star Sign: Pisces

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

Jaggesh Biography

Date of Birth: 17-03-1963

Age: 61

Star Sign: Pisces

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

7. Dr. Srinath

Srinath is a well known Kannada actor and the Vice president of Kannada Channel Udaya TV. Because of his association with Udaya TV, Srinath has acted in a number of popular television serials. This has only added another cap in his distinguished career in both movies and television.The actor was born on 28th December 1944 before Independence and is married to Geetha Srinath. Though he started his career with the movie Lagna Patrike he tasted fame and fortune with the Kannada hit Shubhamangala. With the advent of Television in Karnataka, Srinath took the opportunity to carve a niche for himself on the small screen too. He hosted a popular reality show called Adarsha Dampathigalu. ...

Date of Birth: 28-12-1943

Age: 80

Star Sign: Capricorn

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

Dr. Srinath Biography

Date of Birth: 28-12-1943

Age: 80

Star Sign: Capricorn

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

8. Anant Nag

Anant Nagarakatte was born in the year 1948 on 4th September. He is a very popular actor and a politician. He is a Karnataka based actor who had given many hit movies as an actor. He is regarded as one of the prominent Kannada actors. He had reflected it in all his movies. In-fact, that is why he is known to be an actor who had never met any failures as far as his movies are concerned. Apart from acting in Kannada movies, he had also acted in other film industries. He acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi and Hindi movies as well. This shows his intention of showcas...

Date of Birth: 04-09-1948

Age: 76

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

Anant Nag Biography

Date of Birth: 04-09-1948

Age: 76

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

9. Ramesh Aravind

Ramesh Aravind [born 1964] is an Indian writer, actor, director and producer .He has also acted in few Tamil movies. He did his Mechanical Engineering from UVCE College, Bangalore. His movies are decent, wholesome family films with no vulgarities and crudities but always sensible entertainers.After success in Tamil films, Kannada film producers started noticing him. His performances in America America, Nammoora Mandara Hoove and Ulta Palta gathered him huge fame. Over the years, Ramesh has starred in several hit memorable Tamil movies like “Duet”, “Keladi Kanmani” and “Rhythm”. Ramesh Aravind decided to work full time in Kannada film industry 14 years ago even while his career in Tamil cinema had just started....

Date of Birth: 10-09-1964

Age: 60

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Director

Ramesh Aravind Biography

Date of Birth: 10-09-1964

Age: 60

Star Sign: Virgo

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Director

10. V. Ravichandran

The Crazy Actor, Ravichandran is an actor, director, producer, music director and editor known for his work in Kannada Cinema. He was born on 30th May 1961. He was born to N. Veeraswamy, a film producer and Pattamal. He married Sumathy on 14th February 1986. He has two sons Manoranjan and Vikram, and a daughter Geethanjali. Ravichandran’s debut as an actor was Khadeema Kallaru (1982) in which he played the negative role when he was 21 followed by Chakravyuha (1983). After doing numerous roles as a supporting actor, he was the lead in his directorial debut that was a Kannada cinema Blockbuster, Premaloka (1987) a romantic comedy with Juhi Chawla. His has his productio...

Date of Birth: 30-05-1961

Age: 63

Star Sign: Gemini

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada

Skills: Movie Actor

V. Ravichandran Biography

Date of Birth: 30-05-1961

Age: 63

Star Sign: Gemini

Gender: Male

Language: Kannada