Film actor Prakash Raj is suddenly all over the news thanks to his recent diatribe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At a public event, Raj slammed PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath for their silence over journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder in Bengaluru.
He also took a jibe at the politicians and said that ‘they deserve more awards for acting’ than him for their silence. His strong reaction emerges from the fact that he had a close association with Lankesh and had known her for more than 30 years.
Raj, a well known actor and producer, is a winner of five National Awards. Here is all you need to know about the multilingual actor who has worked in several languages:
- Prakash Raj hails from Bengaluru and began his career by acting in several Doordarshan serials in Kannada and later shifted to Kannada films.
- His major breakthrough came when he was noticed by K Balachander, legendary Tamil filmmaker and playwright who gave him a break in Tamil cinema. Balachander is also credited to have mentored other legendary actors like Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi.
- One of his most notable works include Mani Ratnam’s biopic Iruvar for which he won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. The movie was loosely based on the relationship between politicians M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi where Raj played the later.
- He received the National Award for Best Actor in Priyadarshan’s Kanchivaram in the year 2007. He has also won Special Jury Award for Telugu film Anthapuram and Best Film Puttakkana Highway (Kannada).
- Apart from the recent jibe at PM Modi, Raj was involved in a few other controversies before. In 2008, Telugu Film Producers Council and Movie Artistes Association officially imposed a ban on him
- The Ajay Devgn-starrer Bollywood film Singham in which he portrayed the antagonist also ran into trouble for a dialogue which was allegedly offensive towards Kannadigas, reports The Hindu.
- In Bollywood, he is best known for playing his trademark ‘villain who also does comedy’ character and has done several successful films like Wanted, Singham, Dabangg 2 etc .