Sudha Rani

Jayashree, known by her screen name Sudha Rani, is an Indian actress, voice artist and former model. She has primarily worked in Kannada films in addition to some Tamil, Telugu, Tulu and Malayalam films. As on Feb 2024, she has acted in about 150 films across industries.^[1]

Sudha Rani
Sudharani in 2020
Born	Jayashree Tumkuru, Karnataka, India
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1978–present
Spouses	Sanjay ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 1998)​ Govardhan ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	1

As a child artist, she acted in Kiladi Kittu (1978), Kulla Kulli (1980), Anupama (1981) Bhagyavantha and Ranganayaki (1981). She debuted as a lead actress at age 13 with Anand (1986). She has won the Filmfare Awards and the Karnataka State Film Awards twice for her performances in Panchama Veda (1990) and Mysore Mallige (1992).

Early years

Sudha Rani was born and brought up in Malleswaram, Bengaluru district, Karnataka into "a conservative Brahmin family" of H. S. Gopalakrishna and Nagalakshmi. The family lived in the Malleswaram suburb of Bengaluru. Sudha Rani aspired to be a doctor since most of her relatives were into academics with many doctors among them.^[2] Her uncle was eminent film personality, Chi. Udaya Shankar.

Sudha Rani was educated at St. Thomas school, in its Malleswaram and Seshadripura branches, and recalled reading books being her pastime as a child. She first faced camera for an advertisement for Kwality Biscuits when she was two and a half years old. The cameraman of the advertisement recommended her name to director of the 1978 film, Kiladi Kittu, who cast her to play the younger version of Kavitha's character and her brother as the younger version of Rajinikanth's character.^[2] Her mother enrolled Sudha Rani in dance classes at age five; she would train in Kuchipudi and Bharata Natyam. At age 7, she was roped in by her brother for his short film based on children, titled as Child is Here which won an international award.^{[citation needed]} She also actively participated in the children shows at the Prabhat Kalavidaru theatre troupe.

Film career

Sudha Rani made her first appearance in television as a child in the Kwality biscuits advertisement when she was two and a half years old.^[3] She made her debut in Kannada cinema as a child artist at the age of three with the film Kiladi Kittu starring Vishnuvardhan and Rajinikanth. Sudha Rani was noticed by producer Parvathamma Rajkumar in a thread ceremony video when she was 12 and selected to be the heroine for the film Anand (1986) opposite Shiva Rajkumar and the film became a commercial success.^[4] They became a popular pair and she went on to appear in more films as Mana Mechchida Hudugi, Samara, Aasegobba Meesegobba and Midida Shruthi opposite Shiva Rajkumar. She was paired with Ramesh Aravind in over eight films, including Panchama Veda, Shrigandha, Aragini, Ganda Mane Makkalu, Varagala Bete, Balondu Chaduranga, Accident and Anuraga Sangama. Her Tamil films Annakili Sonna Kathai and Vasanthakala Paravai, proved to be commercial successes. She acted in almost 10 Tamil films and was credited as Shali.

Personal life

Sudha Rani married a U.S.-based anesthesia specialist, Dr. Sanjay in 1996. However citing irreconcilable differences, they parted ways in 1998. Later, she married Govardhan in 2000^[5] and has a daughter Nidhi, born in 2001.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Kannada films

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Film	Role	Notes	Ref.
1978	Kiladi Kittu	Geetha	Credited as Baby Jayashree	[6]
1980	Kulla Kulli	Young Chitra	Credited as Baby Jayashree	[6]
1981	Ranganayaki	Young Ranganayaki	Credited as Baby Jayashree	[7]
	Anupama	Young Anupama	Credited as Baby Jayashree	[6]
	Bhagyavantha	Young Tara	Credited as Baby Jayashree	[6]
1982	Baadada Hoo	Usha	Credited as Sudha
1986	Anand	Mala	Debut as lead actor	[8]
1987	Manamecchida Hudugi	Gowri		[9]
	Vijayotsava
1988	Devatha Manushya	Seetha		[10]
	Ranaranga	Shashikala		[11]
	Ganda Mane Makkalu	Kamala
	Sambhavami Yuge Yuge			[12]
1989	Krishna Nee Kunidaga	Radha		[11]
	Manmatha Raja	Rathi		[13]
	Avane Nanna Ganda	Mangala
1990	Panchama Veda	Rukmini		[14]
	Aasegobba Meesegobba	Urmila
	Ashoka Chakra	Asha
	Halliya Surasuraru	Gowri
	Prathap	Shanthi		[15]
	Shabarimale Swamy Ayyappa	Parvati
	Thrinethra	Asha
1991	Varagala Bete
1992	Mysore Mallige	Padma		[11]
	Midida Shruthi	Sujatha
	Mannina Doni	Sowbhagya/Padmavathi[a]
	Jeevana Chaitra	Lakshmi	Extended special appearance
	Sapthapadi	Sudha
	Belliyappa Bangarappa	Herself	Cameo
	Hosa Raaga
1993	Munjaneya Manju	Meera
	Mane Devru	Janaki		[16]
	Bhagawan Sri Saibaba	Parvati
	Hrudaya Bandhana	Dr. Asha
	Ananda Jyothi	Jyothi
	Kumkuma Bhagya	Mary
	Chinnari Mutha	Marisha	Special appearance in song Maarisha Maarisha
1994	Mahakshathriya	Priyadarshini/Lakshmi	Double role
	Swathi	Swathi
	Gold Medal	Usha
	Vijaya Kankana	Nayana
	Curfew	Sudha	Cameo
1995	Srigandha	Arundathi		[17]
	Aragini	Rani		[18]
	Kona Edaithe	Vishnu's wife	Cameo
	Mister Abhishek	Kiran
	Anuraga Sangama	Kasthuri
	Samara	Usha
	Kavya	Kavya
1996	Simhadri
	Vasantha Kavya	Kavya
	Stunt Master	Pooja
1999	Naanenu Maadlilla	Chitra
2000	Sparsha	Radha		[19]
2001	Sri Manjunatha	Bhoodevi	Cameo
	Chandana Chiguru	Bharathi
2002	Thrishakthi	Jahnavi
2003	Badri		Cameo	[20]
	Preethi Prema Pranaya	Jyothi		[21]
	Khaaki	Tulasi
2004	Bimba	Dolly		[citation needed]
	Talikattuva Shubhavele	Jyothi		[22]
2005	Namma Basava	Basava's sister-in-law		[23]
	Anna Thangi
	Thunta	Sudha
	Auto Shankar	Geetha
	Magic Ajji	Nirmala Devi
	Abhinandane	Kamala
2006	Tirupathi	District Commissioner Margaret
	O Priyathama	Vasu
	Mandya	Gayatri
2007	Thamashegagi	Ramya
	Ee Preethi Yeke Bhoomi Melide	Chikkayya's wife	Cameo
2008	Accident	Suguna Shankar	Cameo
	Mr. Garagasa	Gauri
	Prachanda Ravana	Mandodari
	Navashakthi Vaibhava	Sharadamba
2009	Maleyali Jotheyali	Lucky's mother	Cameo
	Ghauttham	Rajeswari
	Bhagyada Balegara	Unnamed	Special appearance in song "Ghallu Ghallenutha"
	Eshtu Nagthi Nagu
	Huchchi
	Ishwar
2010	Kaanana	Basanthi
	Thamassu	Munavar's mother	Cameo
2011	Jolly Boy	Indramma Gopalaswamy
2012	Jeevana Joke-alli	Amrutha
	Indina Satya
	Dandupalya	Bharathi
	Guru	Tejaswini
2013	Bharath Stores	Bharathi
2014	Vasundhara
	Sachin! Tendulkar Alla
	Bahaddur	Doctor
	Belli	Nidhi
2015	Siddhartha
	Vaastu Prakaara	Vandana
	Rebel
	Billa
	Luv U Alia	Kiran's mother
	Plus	Samarthana		[24]
	Sharpshooter			[25]
2016	Siganduru Chowdeshwari Mahime	Chowdeshwari Devi
	July 22, 1947			[26]
2017	Happy New Year	Varalakshmi		[27]
	Dada is Back
	Vismaya	Dr. Prema		[28]
	Bharjari			[29]
2018	Life Jothe Ondh Selfie	Thulsi		[30]
2019	Padde Huli	Sampath's mother		[16]
	Premier Padmini	Spandana		[31]
	Amar	Amar's mother		[32]
	Chitrakatha	Samaya		[33]
	Geetha	Geethanjali		[34]
	Vrithra			[35]
	Kannad Gothilla	Commissioner of Police		[36]
2020	Mayabazar 2016	Usha		[37]
	Law	Dr. Vimala Pathak		[38]
2021	Yuvarathnaa	Professor		[39]
2022	Trikona	Seetha		[40]
	Avatara Purusha Part 1	Yashodha		[41]
	Thurthu Nirgamana	Nurse		[42]
	Vasanthi Nalidaga	Madhu		[43]
2023	Prajarajya	Vagdevi		[44]
2024	Juni	Juni's Mother
	Yuva	Girija		[45]
	Avatara Purusha Part 2	Yashodha
	Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi
	Bagheera

Other language films

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes	Ref.
1989	Annakili Sonna Kathai	Gowri	Tamil
1990	Master Kapuram	Geeta	Telugu	credited as Gayatri
	Irugillu Porugillu
1991	Vasanthakala Paravai	Uma	Tamil	Credited as Shali
1992	Vasanthakala Malargal	Shanthi
	Mouna Mozhi	Kasthuri
	Sugamana Sumaigal				[46]
1993	Thangakkili	Swathi
	Bangar Patler		Tulu
1995	Aadyathe Kanmani	Ambika	Malayalam
2017	Nibunan	Dr. Prema	Tamil		[28]
2019	Jessie	Dr. Aradhya	Telugu

Voice-over

Year	Film	Actress
1999	Premotsava	Roja
2002	Simhadriya Simha	Meena
2004	Maurya	Roja
2004	Monalisa	Sadha
2012	Prasad	Madhuri Bhattacharya
2014	Maanikya	Ramya Krishnan
2022	K.G.F: Chapter 2	Raveena Tandon

Television

• Aramane (Udaya TV)^[47]

Awards and nominations

Year[b]	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref(s)
1987	Mana Mechchida Hudugi	BR Panthulu Award	Best Actress	Won
1991	Panchama Veda	Karnataka State Film Awards	Best Actress	Won
1992	Mysore Mallige			Won
		Filmfare Awards South	Best Actress	Won	[48]
2000	Sparsha			Won	[citation needed]
2015	Vaastu Prakaara		Best Supporting Actress – Kannada	Won	[49]
2019	Life Jothe Ondh Selfie			Nominated	[50]
2023	Thurthu Nirgamana	Chandanavana Film Critics Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Won	[51]

Notes

1. She played one character with two names.
2. Refers to the year in which the ceremony was held.