Easwari Rao

Easwari Rao is an Indian actress who works in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada cinema.^[1][2] She played lead roles from 1990 to 1999. She started to play supporting and character roles from 2000 onwards.

Easwari Rao
Born	Tanuku, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India
Other names	Janani, Vijayashree, Vyjayanthi
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1990–2005 2014–present
Spouse	L. Raja
Children	2

Personal life

Eswari Rao is married to director and actor L. Raja.^[3] The couple have two children.^[3]

Career

Eswari Rao's debut movie was Intinta Deepavali (1990) in Telugu. She debuted in Tamil in Kavithai Paadum Alaigal credited as Janani. Though the songs were popular, the movie was a failure at box office. She was first noticed in a character role in Thalapathy Vijay's debut film Naalaiya Theerpu in 1992.^[4] She appeared in the 1995 film Rambantu, which was directed by Bapu.

She got her first major break in Raman Abdullah (1997), directed by Balu Mahendra, where she was credited as Easwari Rao. She notably opted out of a project titled Koottaali as she felt the role was too glamorous. She went on to appear in Manoj Kumar's film Guru Paarvai (1998). Easwari also had a role in Bharathiraja's Siragugal Murivadhilai, although the film was shelved after pre-production.^[5] She has played sister roles in films such as Appu (2000), Naaga (2003) and Sullan (2004).

Her popular serial Kokila Enge Pogiraal was made for Sun TV. She acted in number of TV shows like Kasthuri, Aval Appadithan, Ninne Pelladutha and Agni Saatchi and a couple of more serials that shot her into households fame. She won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Character Artiste (Female) for the film Virumbugiren released in 2002. However, her next film wasn't until the Telugu film Legend (2014). She then was in Andhra Pori (2015), Brahmotsavam (2016) and Ism (2016). Her films A Aa (2016) and the Nenu Local (2017) became big hits.^[3]

She received praise for her performance in Kaala (2018) in which she starred alongside Rajinikanth. Easwari Rao was seen on big screens in the film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020).^[6] She acted in Telegu with Naga Chaitanya in Love Story (2021), Thank You (2022) and Dhootha (2023).

In 2024, Eswari Rao portrays the usual rural, doting mom in the Tamil drama film Aalakaalam.^[7]

Filmography

Films

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

List Easwari Rao film credits

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
1990	Intinta Deepavali		Telugu
	Kavithai Paadum Alaigal	Devaki	Tamil	Credited as Janani
1991	Jagannatakam	Neela	Telugu
	Kalikalam		Telugu
1992	Ootty Pattanam	Seena / Ranjini Thamburatti	Malayalam
	Naalaiya Theerpu	Raani	Tamil
1993	Vedan	Priya	Tamil
1994	Megha Maale	Roopa	Kannada	Credited as Vijayashree
1995	Rambantu	Kaveri	Telugu	Credited as Kaveri
1997	Raman Abdullah	Gowri	Tamil
1998	Simmarasi	Rasathi	Tamil
	Guru Paarvai	Pooja / Alamelu	Tamil
1999	Poomaname Vaa		Tamil
	Sundari Neeyum Sundaran Naanum	Krishnaveni	Tamil
2000	Appu	Saradha	Tamil
2001	Kutty	Chenthamarai	Tamil
	Thavasi	Gowri	Tamil
2002	Kannathil Muthamittal	Shyama	Tamil
	Virumbugiren	Latha	Tamil	Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Character Artiste (Female)[8]
2003	Naaga	Vijji's sister	Telugu
2004	Sullan	Karpagam	Tamil
	Aaptudu		Telugu	Guest appearance
2005	Bhadra	Surendra's wife	Telugu
2006	Saravana	Soundarapandiyan's wife	Tamil
2014	Legend	Jaidev's aunt	Telugu
2015	Andhra Pori		Telugu
2016	Premam	Sithara's mother	Telugu
	Brahmotsavam	Bhulakshmi	Telugu
	A Aa	Kameswari	Telugu
	Ism	Satyavathi / Ammaji	Telugu
2017	Nenu Local	Babu's mother	Telugu
	Mister	Chey's step mother	Telugu
	Jawaan	Jai's mother	Telugu
2018	Kaala	Selvi	Tamil	Behindwoods Gold Medal Best Supporting Actress[9] Ananda Vikatan Cinema Award for Best Supporting Actress SIIMA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role[10]
	Ee Maaya Peremito		Telugu
	Aravindha Sametha	Reddamma	Telugu
2019	F2 – Fun and Frustration	Laxmi	Telugu
	Unda	Lalitha	Malayalam	Cameo
	Azhiyatha Kolangal 2	News Reader	Tamil	Also producer
2020	Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo	Nurse Sulochana	Telugu
	Johaar	Ganga	Telugu
	Lock Up	Illavarasi	Tamil
	Varmaa	Bhavani	Tamil
2021	Love Story	Revanth's mother	Telugu
2022	Theal	Durai's adopted mother and Raja's mother	Tamil
	K.G.F: Chapter 2	Fathima	Kannada
	Virata Parvam	Sujatha	Telugu
	Thank You	Sailaja	Telugu
2023	Veera Simha Reddy	Siddhappa's Wife	Telugu
	Kondraal Paavam	Valliyammal	Tamil
	Peddha Kapu 1		Telugu
	Dhootha	Raghavayya's granddaughter and Kranthi's mother	Telugu	Web series; Released on Amazon Prime Video
	Bandra	Rosamma	Malayalam
	Pindam	Annamma	Telugu
	Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire	Deva's mother	Telugu
2024	Guntur Kaaram	Bujji, Satyam's sister	Telugu
	Aalakaalam	Yashoda	Tamil

Television

• Kokila Enge Pogiraal (Sun TV)
• Peyarai Solla vaa (Sun TV/Vikatan Televistas)
• Udhayam (Sun TV) Radaan Mediaworks
• Kasthuri (Sun TV)
• Aval Appadithan (Jaya TV)
• Ninne Pelladutha (Gemini TV)
• Vennalamma (Gemini TV)
• Agni Saatchi (Vijay TV)
• Vazhnthu Kaatukiren (AVM Productions) (Sun TV)
• Maya (Jaya TV)
• Aaha (Vijay TV)
• Kantham Kathalu (Dooradarshan - Telugu)

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Film	Result	Ref.
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards	Best Female Character Artiste	Virumbugiren	Won	[11]
Behindwoods Gold Medal	Best Supporting Actress	Kaala	Won	[12]
Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards			Won	[13]
8th South Indian International Movie Awards			Won	[14]

References

1. Chowdhary, Y. Sunita (20 February 2017). "Easwari Rao: Smooth second coming". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
2. "Kaala actress Easwari Rao on working with Rajinikanth: I feared I might end up playing his mother". Firstpost. 5 June 2018. Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
3. Kavirayani, Suresh (18 June 2017). "Eswari Rao stages a comeback". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
4. "'Kaala' heroine's connection with Thalapathy Vijay's debut".
5. "1997-98 Kodambakkam babies Page". Indolink.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
6. "'Kaala' actress Easwari Rao thanks Superstar Rajinikanth and Pa Ranjith for the biggest opportunity".
7. "Aalakaalam Movie Review : Aalakaalam is Lost in Melodrama, Missing the Message".
8. "Easwari Rao".
9. "Easwari Rao (Aka) Eashwari Rao photos stills & images". 27 December 2018. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
10. "Awards 2019 – SIIMA". Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
11. "Easwari Rao's unbelievable moment in 'Kaala'".
12. "List of Winners for BGM Iconic Edition". 16 December 2018. Archived from the original on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
13. "ஆனந்த விகடன் சினிமா விருதுகள் 2018 - திறமைக்கு மரியாதை". 3 January 2019. Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
14. "Awards 2019 - SIIMA". Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023.

External links

• Easwari Rao at IMDb