Kasthuri Shankar

For the singer, see Kasturi Shankar.

Kasthuri Shankar is an Indian actress, model and television presenter who has appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language films.^[1]

Kasthuri Shankar
Kasthuri Shankar in the Kannada song Thare Thare Minuguva Thare
Occupations	Actress model
Years active	1991-2001 2009-present

Personal life

She was born to Sumathi, a lawyer and P.S. Shankar. She has one younger brother. She married and has a son and a daughter. Her daughter is a leukemia survivor.^[2]

Career

After graduation from Ethiraj College for Women, Kasthuri won Miss Chennai in 1992. In the same year, she won the Femina Miss Madras beauty pageant too. While studying in college, she started her career in modelling over interest in the domain.^[3] Not only was she a successful model, but also, she was a finalist in the BBC's Mastermind India 2000 quiz. Her acting career began in 1991 with the film, Aatha Un Koyilile (1991). From working on small budget Tamil films, she went on to work into more mainstream movies alongside legends, such as Kamal Haasan in Indian (1996). A 30-minute documentary film, Kasthuri: A South Indian Film Star, was released as a tribute to her success in the film industry. She gained attention for her acting skills in Annamayya (1997) and dance performance in Kaadhal Kavithai (1998).

However, she decided to make a comeback as a supporting actress and television host. Her debut comeback film was Malai Malai (2009) and also worked on Vina Vidai Vettai (2013-2014) for Puthuyugam TV.

She also notably portrayed a key supporting role as an investigative agent in Adhik Ravichandran's Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (2017), appearing alongside Silambarasan.^[4]

Other work

Television

Kasthuri works as quiz master at staged events and on television. She had taken an early interest during childhood in participating in quiz events, and later continued making competitive appearances, and notably appeared as a contestant on BBC's Mastermind India in 2000. She later made a comeback to hosting television-based quiz shows in the 2010s, and worked on Vina Vidai Vettai for Puthuyugam TV.^[5]

After rejecting the opportunity to appear on the Tamil reality television show Bigg Boss Tamil in 2018, she joined the third season of the show in 2019 as a wildcard entry contestant.^[6]

After that, she made her comeback to Telugu audience in Intinti Gruhalakshmi serial which airs on Star Maa now.^[7]

Columns

In the late 1990s, Kasthuri wrote a weekly column titled "Keep It Simple Stupid" in the Kumudham magazine.^[8]

Topless photoshoot

In 2014, she was photographed topless and half-nude as a part of Jade Beall's book The Bodies of Mothers: A Beautiful Body Project.^[9][10][11]

Social commentary and controversies

Kasthuri is an active commentator regarding social issues through an occasional column with the Times of India and via Twitter, and her tweets have sometimes elicited debate in the media.^[12] In early 2017, she questioned Rajinikanth's ability as a potential politician, and her opinion garnered criticism from the actor's fans.^[13][14] In late 2018, she criticised Rajinikanth's ignorance over the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and engaged in a further exchange with Rajinikanth's supporters.^[15] Kasthuri spoke out as a part of the Me Too movement in India, suggesting that her reluctance to give into patriarchal behaviour meant that she was removed from several film projects. She revealed that one male actor took a particular vengeance against her for her rebuff to his advances, and subsequently made it difficult for her to work on other projects.^[2][16][17] She criticised directors Bharathiraja and S. Shankar in April 2019, she said director Bharathiraja and his son has black skin and they use North Indian girls with lighter skin in their movies while S. Shankar goes a long way and imports white skin foreign girls in his movies.^[18] While Kasthuri declares herself an Indian patriot, her husband and two children are all US-born American citizens. During the row over the comments made by DMK MP Elangovan against Hindi, Kasthuri criticized him stating that she was personally offended as she was of mixed lineage herself,^[19] referring to the fact that her father was a Nair and her mother an Iyer.

A person, who claimed himself to be actor Ajith's fan, had allegedly made sexist comments against Kasturi Shankar in January 2020. A week after this, Kasthuri Shankar blasted him, by suggesting him to ask his mother or sister if he wants a woman for sex. She used the tag #dirtyajithfans, which started trending in India. Some fans of Ajith created #DirtyKasthuriAunty to counter this. A war of words continued and created a controversy.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
1991	Aatha Un Koyilile	Kasthuri	Tamil
	Chakravarthy	Praseetha	Malayalam
	Rasathi Varum Naal	Radha	Tamil
1992	Government Mappillai	Mallaria
	Chinnavar	Meena
	Urimai Oonjaladugiradhu	Uma
	Senthamizh Pattu	Shanmathi
	Abhirami	Dhanam
	Gang War	Kaveri	Telugu
1993	Rakkayi Koyil	Vellaiyamma	Tamil
	Pudhiya Mugam	Raja's first wife
	Pass Mark	Shanthi
	Aathma	Uma
	Udan Pirappu	Sumathi
	Nippu Ravva	Bharathi	Telugu
	Enga Muthalali	Kalyani	Tamil
1994	Amaidhi Padai	Thayamma
	Watchman Vadivel	Radha
	Raja Pandi	Ponnuthaayi
	Thendral Varum Theru	Nalini
	Jaana	Kasturi	Kannada
1995	Sindhu Bath	Shobana	Tamil
	Chinna Mani	Chinna Mani
	Kolangal	Uma
	Aakaya Pookal	Kamakshi
	God Father	Aruna	Telugu
	Agrajan	Sreedevi	Malayalam
	Radholsavam	Chempakam
	Aniyan Bava Chetan Bava	Ammu
1996	Ibbara Naduve Muddina Aata		Kannada
	Indian	Kasthuri	Tamil
	Krishna	Lizy
	Soggadi Pellam	Jyothi	Telugu
	Merupu	Prema
	Rendu Kutumbala Katha	Hema
1997	Chilakkottudu	Kasturi
	Ratha Yatra	Ganga
	Annamayya	Akkalamma
	Maa Ayana Bangaram
1998	Mangalya Pallakku	Seethalakshmi	Malayalam
	Thutta Mutta	Dr. Seema	Kannada
	One Man Army	Kasthoori
	Sneham	Radhika	Malayalam
	Kaadhal Kavidhai	Swapna	Tamil
1999	Habba	Anu	Kannada
	Suyamvaram	Uma	Tamil
	Panchapandavar	Nandini	Malayalam
2001	Engalukkum Kaalam Varum	Pooja	Tamil
	Dosth			Special appearance in the song "Hey Sal Sal"
	Akasa Veedhilo	Padma	Telugu
	Premakke Sai	Vedha	Kannada
2002	Adheena	Princess Adheena	Malayalam
2009	Malai Malai	Lakshmi	Tamil
2010	Thamizh Padam			Special appearance in the song "Kuthuvilakku"
	Gudu Gudu Gunjam	Malleeshwari	Telugu
	Don Seenu	Lakshmi
2011	Pathinaaru	Ilavarasi	Tamil	Guest appearance
	Thoonga Nagaram			Special appearance
2012	Naanga	Chithra
2013	Azhagan Azhagi			Special appearance in the song "Ethuvarai Vaanam"
	Naan Rajavaga Pogiren	Bharathi
2014	Vadacurry	Satish's sister in law
	Naan Ponnu Ondru Kanden			Special appearance in the song "Othaya Retaya"
2017	Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan	Ruby
	Samanthakamani	Krishna's mother	Telugu
2018	Traffic Ramasamy	Witness in court	Tamil	Guest appearance
	Thamizh Padam 2			Special appearance in the song "Vaa Vaa Kaama"
2020	Velvet Nagaram	Gauri
2021	EPCO 302	S. Durga IPS
2022	Godfather	Brahma's mother	Telugu
2023	Tamilarasan		Tamil
	Rayar Parambarai	Rayar's sister
	Striker
2024	Simbaa		Telugu

Television

Year	Title	Role	Language	Network	Notes
	Eshtadanam		Malayalam	DD Malayalam
1995	Kaiyalavu Manasu	Vani	Tamil	Sun TV
2000	Mastermind India	Contestant	Tamil	BBC
2010	Sun Kudumbam Awards 2010	Host		Sun TV
	Star Singer	Special judge	Malayalam	Asianet
2013–2014	Vina Vidai Vettai	Host	Tamil	Puthuyugam TV
2014	Vina Vidai Vettai Juniors	Host		Puthuyugam TV
	Wow 2	Participant	Telugu	E TV
2019	Bigg Boss Tamil 3	Contestant	Tamil	Star Vijay	Evicted Day 63
2020–2024	Intinti Gruhalakshmi	Tulasi	Telugu	Star Maa
2020	Cash	Participant	Telugu	ETV
	Agni Natchathiram	Rudra	Tamil	Sun TV
2021	Parampara	Indira	Telugu	Disney+ Hotstar
	Sixth Sense	Participant	Telugu	Star Maa
2022	Aruvi	Herself	Tamil	Sun TV
	Sreedevi Dance Company	Herself	Telugu	ETV
2024	Seethe Ramudiki Katnam	Ram's Mother	Telugu	Zee Telugu

References

1. "Actor Kasthuri Shankar Opens up About Losing Parents, Seeing Daughter Battle Cancer". 29 November 2021.
2. Sundar, Mrinalini. "Casting couch in filmdom isn't a myth, it does exist". The Times of India.
3. "Career as an actress". The Times of India.
4. "I am too old for Vijay, too young for Rajinikanth: Kasthuri". 22 June 2017.
5. "In the limelight again". journeyline.in.
6. "Bigg Boss Tamil 3 contestant Kasthuri makes shocking revelations over her payment dues". 30 September 2020.
7. Pasupuleti, AuthorPriyanka. "Kasthuri Shankar testing her luck on small screen". Telangana Today. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
8. "Minnoviyam". Archived from the original on 20 April 1999.
9. "Actor Kasthuri's photo shoot for motherhood wins hearts, she says amazed at response". The News Minute. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
10. "Actress Kasthuri Poses Semi-nude for Photo-book 'Bodies of Mothers'". The New Indian Express. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
11. Team, DNA Web (31 October 2015). "South Indian actress Kasthuri poses topless for Jade Beall's 'A Beautiful Body Project'". DNA India. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
12. "The Word View: Ek Gaon Mein Ek Kisan Raghuthatha!". The Times of India.
13. Subramanian, Anupama (23 May 2017). "I am a true fan of Rajini sir: Kasturi". Deccan Chronicle.
14. "Kasthuri Says She's A "True Fan" Of Rajinikanth". 23 May 2017.
15. "Rajinikanth, actress Kasthuri engage in war of words over Rajiv Gandhi assassination case". Asianet News Network Pvt Ltd.
16. "Kasthuri: "People Think Women Can't Climb Up The Ladder Without The Favours of a Man!"". 12 March 2017.
17. "Winds of change in Kollywood? More women actors speak up about misogyny in the industry". The News Minute. 25 March 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
18. Rajkumar (17 April 2019). "பொது மேடையில் பாரதி ராஜாவின் நிறம் குறித்து கேலி செய்த கஸ்தூரி.! இதே வேல தானா.!". Tamil Behind Talkies. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
19. "Video | "I Am a Proud Shudra": Actor Kasturi Shankar Amid Language Row".

External links

• Kasthuri at IMDb