Dhananjaya (actor)

Kalenahalli Adaviswamy Dhananjaya, also known as Daali, is an Indian actor and producer who predominantly works in Kannada and Telugu films. Dhananjaya made his acting debut in Director's Special (2013) for which he won the best debut actor award at the SIIMA Awards.He has won three Filmfare Awards South and four South Indian International Movie Awards for his performances in various films ^[2] He was critically acclaimed for playing the role of Allama Prabhu in Allama (2017). He turned producer through the film 'Badava Rascal.^[3]

Dhananjaya
Dhananjaya in 2014
Born	Kalenahalli Adaviswamy Dhananjaya (1985-08-23) 23 August 1985 (age 39) Kalenahalli, Arasikere taluk, Hassan District, Karnataka, India
Other names	Daali
Alma mater	Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering
Occupations	Actor lyricist film producer
Years active	2007–present
Spouse	Dhanyatha (m. 2025)[1]

Dhananjaya got the major breakthrough in the 2018 film Tagaru directed by Duniya Soori for his performance as a menacing villain. He is now popularly addressed as "Daali", the character name in the film.^[4]

Early life and family

Dhananjaya was born on 23 August 1985 in Kalenahalli, Arsikere taluka, Hassan District.^[5] Dhananjaya excelled in studies and had secured top marks for the whole of Hassan District once when he was in 7th standard and then again in 10th standard.^[6] He says he grew up watching Dr. Rajkumar movies and hence he started acting in dramas, mono-acting competitions and street plays while he was still in school.^[7]

Dhananjaya then moved to Mysore for higher studies and having completed his PUC in Marimallappa College, he secured an engineering seat in one of the reputed engineering colleges in Mysore, SJCE.^[8][9] He even got a job in a software company, Infosys. However, he started taking acting more seriously and joined an amateur theatre group called GPIER which was headed and mentored by a senior Rangayana artist named Mime Ramesh.^[8][9] He was also recognized and mentored by Germany theatre artist Christian Stückl in Germany.^[10][11] During one of his performances in a drama, he was recognised by popular Kannada director Guruprasad and was offered a lead role in a feature film.^[9] Thus began his career in Sandalwood.

He married Dr.Dhanyatha in a grand ceremony held on February 16, 2025, at the Exhibition Grounds in Mysore^[12]

Film career

Dhananjaya with the cast and crew at the presentation of the film 'Allama', during the 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2016), in Panaji, Goa on 26 November 2016.

Early years (2013–2017)

Dhananjaya appeared in a Kannada short film on YouTube called Jayanagar 4th Block which has over 2.5 million views as of 2022.^[13] Dhananjaya was offered a lead role in Guruprasad's feature film Director's Special.^[14] The film took three years in the making and was finally released in 2013 to mixed and negative responses at the box office. Dhananjaya was lauded for his performance and won the best debut actor award at the 3rd SIIMA Awards for the same. Many prominent filmmakers approached him for the roles in their films. He was then cast in A. P. Arjun's next film Rhaatee opposite Shruthi Hariharan under musician V. Harikrishna's debut production. His next was Preetham Gubbi's film Boxer, produced under Jayanna Films banner, which brought him wide accolades. He was known for his fit boxer's body, which he had achieved by rigorous training.^[15][16] He was then offered a role by National award-winning director T. S. Nagabharana for the film Allama which is based on the life of 12th century saint poet Allama Prabhu. Dhananjaya underwent harsh training to master the musical instrument Mridanga and also the classical dance for the role and received great reviews for his performance. Although his movies did not make a big impact on the box office collection, he constantly received good reviews from the audience and critics for his acting skills.

Daali and success (2018–present)

His biggest breakthrough came when he was offered a negative role named "'Daali" opposite Shiva Rajkumar In Tagaru directed by Duniya Suri. Director Suri has shared that he was a bit hesitant to offer negative role to Dhananjaya as he was always playing good deed doing lead (or hero) roles in his previous movies and was pleasantly surprised when he accepted the offer.^[17] The film opened with very good reviews and was declared a huge hit in terms of box office collection. Dhananjaya's acting as a menacing villain won him accolades across the film fraternity, critics and the audience.^[18][19] The role earned him nicknames such as "Nataraakshasa", "Nata bhayanakara", "Daali"^[4] etc. He is currently one of the most sought-after actors who is seen as a capable lead to play both antagonist and protagonist roles. After this movie, he has played many roles with leading actors in the Kannada film industry such as Darshan in Yajamana, Puneeth Rajkumar in Yuvarathna and Duniya Vijay in Salaga as well as paving the way to receive offers for films in other languages.^[20]

He then starred in the film Rathnan Prapancha directed by Rohit Padaki and produced by KRG Studios which was their maiden production venture. The film had a direct OTT Release on Amazon prime and received positive reviews and deemed a blockbuster.^[21][22]

Production and other work

Riding on the success of his acting career in Sandalwood, Dhananjaya has set up his own production house Daali Pictures named after his popular character Daali.^[23] Badava Rascal - A Kannada film, marked Dhananjaya's entry into the journey as a producer under his home banner.^[24] The film directed by Debutant Shankar Guru opened to positive to mixed reviews but became a sleeper hit at the box office.^[25][26][27] His next production venture was named Head Bush directed by Debutant Shoonya and story by Agni Shridhar under his home banner Daali Pictures.^[28] The film based on the life-story of Bangalore's infamous underworld don - Jayaraj.^[29] The film opened to mixed reviews and fared averagely at the box office and attracted controversy over the Veeragase scene in the movie.^[30][31][32] His third production was Tagarupalya, a rural comedy drama movie directed by Debutant Umesh Krupa, starring Nagabushana, Debutante Amrutha Prem, Rangayana Raghu and others. The movie opened to positive to mixed reviews and performed decently at the box office.^[33][34]

Dhananjaya has also penned for songs in movies that he has starred in as well as other indie films.^[35] The Kannada film Orchestra Mysuru- a first production venture by musician Raghu Dixit being one of his first as a lyricist in Kannada film industry.^[36][37] He has also written multiple songs for his production movies Badava Rascal, Head Bush, Tagru Palya among which many of them were a huge hit.^[38]

He also penned few lines for the movie Daredevil Mustafa which went to feature in the Karnataka State Budget for the year 2024.^[39][40] Dhananjaya often writes columns in Kannada newspapers choosing topics such as social issues and human values.^[41][42]

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes	Ref.
2013	Director's Special	Dhananjaya	Kannada	Debut film
2014	Jayanagar 4th Block	Himself		Story writer	[43]
2015	Rhaatee	Raja
	Boxer	Raja			[15][16]
2016	Jessie	Jessie			[44]
	Badmaash	Vijay			[45]
2017	Allama	Allama Prabhu			[46]
	Eradane Sala	Dhanu			[47] [48]
	Happy New Year	RJ Danny
2018	Tagaru	Daali			[49][4]
	Bhairava Geetha	Bhairava	Kannada Telugu
	Life Jothe Ondh Selfie	Karthik	Kannada	Special appearance
2019	Yajamana	Mittai Soori			[50]
2020	Popcorn Monkey Tiger	Tiger Seena			[51]
2021	Pogaru	Dhananjay			[52]
	Yuvarathnaa	Antony Joseph			[53]
	Salaga	Samrat			[54]
	Rathnan Prapancha	Rathnakara			[55]
	Pushpa: The Rise	Jaali Reddy	Telugu		[56]
2022	Badava Rascal	Shankar	Kannada	Also producer	[57]
	Twenty One Hours	Srikanth			[58]
	Bairagee	Karna			[57]
	Monsoon Raaga	Katte			[57]
	Totapuri: Chapter 1	Narayana Pillai			[59]
	Head Bush	M. P. Jayaraj		Also producer	[60]
	Once Upon a Time in Jamaligudda	Krishan (Heroshima)			[61]
2023	Orchestra Mysuru	Shepard		Cameo appearance	[62]
	Gurudev Hoysala	Gurudev Hoysala			[63]
	Paayum Oli Nee Yenakku	Jeevan	Tamil		[64][65]
	Manu Charitra	Rudra	Telugu
	Thothapuri: Chapter 2	Narayana Pillai	Kannada
2024	Kotee	Kotee
	Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan	Daali	Tamil		[66]
	Tagaru Palya		Kannada	Producer only	[67]
	Zebra	Aditya Devaraj	Telugu		[68]
	Pushpa 2: The Rule	Jaali Reddy
2025	Vidyapati	Anaconda	Kannada	Also producer	[69]
TBA	Uttarakaanda †	Gabru Sathya		Filming	[70][71]

As lyricist

Year	Song	Film	Composer	Ref.
2021	"Udupi Hotelu"	Badava Rascal	Vasuki Vaibhav
2022	"Habibi Habibi"	Head Bush	Charan Raj
2023	"Maadappa"	Orchestra Mysuru	Raghu Dixit
	"Sulla Chandira"
	"Nadiyondu"
	"Dum Idre Hodi Nanna"
	"Sangeeta Sagara"
	"Arey Arey"
	"Idu Yeno Ondthara"
	"Haaduve Naa Haaduve"
	"Tagaru Palya Title Track"	Tagaru Palya	Vasuki Vaibhav	[72]
	"Suryakanthi"
2024	"Odu Odu"	Abbabba	Deepak Alexander

Awards and nominations

List of film awards and nominations

Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
Director's Special	3rd SIIMA Awards	Best Male Debutant	Won	[73]
Allama	65th Filmfare Awards South	Critics Best Actor – Kannada	Won	[74]
	Basavaratna Awards	Best Actor	Won
Tagaru	Zee Kannada Hemmeya Kannadiga Award	Best Supporting Actor	Won
	66th Filmfare Awards South	Best Supporting Actor – Kannada	Won	[75]
	8th SIIMA Awards	Best Actor in a Negative Role	Won	[76]
Popcorn Monkey Tiger	9th SIIMA Awards	Best Actor – Kannada	Won	[77]
Salaga	10th SIIMA Awards	Best Supporting Actor – Kannada	Nominated
	67th Filmfare Awards South	Best Supporting Actor – Kannada	Nominated
Badava Rascal		Best Actor – Kannada	Won	[78]
	10th SIIMA Awards	Best Actor – Kannada	Nominated	[79][80]
Yuvarathnaa		Best Actor in a Negative Role – Kannada	Nominated
		Best sensation of Kannada cinema	Won
Tagaru Palya	69th Filmfare Awards South	Best Lyricist – Kannada	Nominated	[81][82]