‘Harakeya Kuri’ starring Kannada star hero Vishnuvardhan. These films made Prakash come to the attention of veteran Tamil director K. Balachander.In Kannada films, Prakash Raj’s name is Prakash Roy. However.. Balachander changed Prakash Roy to Prakash Raj for the movie ‘Duet’. In 1997, Prakash Raj was cast as Karunanidhi in Mani Ratnam’s political biopic ‘Iddaru’. Prakash played the role of Karunanidhi in this movie based on the story of MGR and Karunanidhi. He won the National Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this movie.
On the other hand, at the same time, Prakash entered the Malayalam film industry and the Telugu industry as well. In 1996, he acted in several Malayalam films. In 1995, he entered the Telugu industry with the film ‘Sankalpam’ directed by AM Ratnam. However.. Prakash Raj got good recognition in Telugu with the film ‘Gun Shot’ starring Ali as the hero. After that, he continued his film career in Telugu like ‘Pavitrabandham, Suswagatham, Hitler’.
Prakash Raj’s role of Narasimha in ‘Anthapuram’ produced by creative director Krishnavamshi was all applauded a lot . He once again received an award at the national level for his performance in this movie. After ‘Anthapuram’, Prakash Raj became the first choice for the then young directors. No matter what type of role he wants to play on the screen.. Prakash Raj was found as a weapon for them. Prakash Raj is an actor who does one hundred percent justice to the role envisioned by those directors.
Prakash Raj started making his entry in Telugu in 1995.. Still with the same speed, Prakash Raj is becoming the care of address for many typical roles. Despite the change of generations, he continues to get the love of the audience from all walks of life. He continues to show his ability in both the film and the web world.
Prakash Raj is a multitalented person.. Special mention should be made for his services to the film industry not only as an actor but also as a producer and director. Prakash Raj, who became a producer with the Tamil film ‘Daya’ in 2002, produced about 20 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages. And.. Prakash Raj has half a dozen films in his kitty as a director.
As far as awards are concerned, Prakash Raj has received many best awards in his three decades of film career. He received Nandi awards eight times from the Telugu film industry. Especially in addition to the best actor award at the national level, he has bagged five national awards as best supporting actor, special jury and special mention.
Prakash is also involved in many controversies. Telugu film producers banned him six times in the past. During the shooting of Pawan Kalyan’s ‘Jalsa’, NTR’s ‘Kanthri’ and Allu Arjun’s ‘Parugu’, complaints came against Prakash Raj. Also, there was a controversy over appearing naked in a sequence in the movie ‘Ongolu Githa’.Many Kannada organizations protested outside the theaters because they felt that some of the dialogues spoken by Prakash in a scene from the Hindi film ‘Singham’ with Ajay Devagan were offensive to Kannadas.
Prakash Raj is also a politician. After the murder of his friend Gauri Lankesh in 2017, Prakash Raj started his active political movement on social media with the hashtag justasking. He contested as an independent candidate for Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 Indian General Election. However, he lost that election. He still responds to political and social issues from time to time on the platform of social media.
Coming to Prakash Raj’s personal life, he married Lalitha Kumari in 1994. They have two daughters Meghna and Pooja. A son named Siddu was also born. However.. he died at the age of five when he fell down while flying a kite. Prakash Raj-Lalitha Kumari couple divorced in 2009.
Prakash Raj then married choreographer Pony Verma in 2010. Vedanth was born to them in 2015. Prakash Raj, who appeared in ‘Guntur Kaaram’ in Telugu this year, is currently going to entertain the audience with many crazy movies like Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa 2’, Pawan Kalyan’s ‘OG’, NTR’s ‘Devara’ and Dhanush’s ‘Raayan’. Also.. there are many more movies in the pipeline from various languages.
