Vijay Raghavendra

Vijay Raghavendra is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Kannada films. Referred to popularly as "Chinnari Mutha",^[1] Vijay is the son of producer S. A. Chinne Gowda and nephew of actor Dr. Rajkumar.

Vijay Raghavendra
Born	Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Occupations	Actor film director Television presenter
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Spandana Vijay ​ ​ (m. 2007; died 2023)​
Children	1
Father	S. A. Chinne Gowda
Relatives	Sriimurali (brother) See Rajkumar family

Vijay started his career as a child artist through the film Chalisuva Modagalu (1982) and won critical acclaims for his performances in Chinnari Mutha (1993) and Kotreshi Kanasu (1994).^[2] The latter film won him the National Film Award for Best Child Artist.^[3] His first lead role was in Ramoji Rao's production titled Ninagagi in 2002, which was a commercial success and one of the highest-grossing films of the year. However, his subsequent projects under-performed at the box office until he was noticed for his role in the T. S. Nagabharana's period drama Kallarali Hoovagi in 2006, followed by his home production film Sevanthi Sevanthi in the same year. For playing the role of Puttaraj Gawai in the biographical film Shivayogi Sri Puttayyajja in 2016, Vijay won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor.^[4] In 2018, he made his directorial debut in Kismath (2018).^[5]

In 2013, by public vote, Vijay won the first season of the game show Bigg Boss Kannada – one of the Indian versions of Celebrity Big Brother, currently produced by Endemol India.^[6]

Early life

Vijay Raghavendra was born in Bangalore, India to a family of film personalities. He began to act in films featuring his uncle Rajkumar in the lead. After having acted in about eight films as a child artist, Vijay underwent a formal training in acting at Chennai.^[7]

Film career

Child roles : 1980s–1990s

In 1982, Vijay appeared in a small role as a child in Singeetham Srinivasa Rao's romantic drama Chalisuva Modagalu, starring his uncle Rajkumar, Ambika and his cousin Puneeth Rajkumar, credited as Master Lohith. He went on to appear in the 1989 movie Parashuram, alongside his cousin Puneeth Rajkumar in a song. After a brief gap, in 1991 he appeared in Aralida Hoovugalu, a remake of the Hindi film Jawani Diwani (1971), directed by Chi. Dattaraj and co-starred Shiva Rajkumar. His next movie Chinnari Mutha became a huge success and he became a household name in Karnataka. After that, he acted in many movies, including Kotreshi Kanasu, for which he won a National Award for his performance.

In 1993, Vijay, in his teens, appeared in three films: H. R. Bhargava's novel-based drama Jaga Mechida Huduga, Renuka Sharma's devotional Kollura Sri Mookambika, where he played the role of young Shankaracharya and the lead protagonist in the T. S. Nagabharana's Children's film Chinnari Mutha. The film won multiple laurels and awards upon release both at the state and national level. Vijay won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Child Actor (Male) for his portrayal of an innocent Mutha who rises to great popularity through his good deeds.^[8] His popularity further rose in 1995 with the Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's film adaption of the novel Kotra Highschoolige Seriddu, titled Kotreshi Kanasu. Vijay played the title role of Kotreshi and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for the year 1994–95. The other film he featured in was the biographical Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai, directed by Chindodi Bangaresh. He again played the title role as the young and blind reformer Gawai and also portrayed the younger part of Narendra in the Hindi film Swami Vivekananda. Following this, he took a break from films and concentrated on his studies.

Adult roles: 2002–present

His first adult role as an actor was in Ninagagi (2002), a box office blockbuster which brought him success on his first role opposite the debutant Radhika. The film was a remake of the Telugu hit Nuvve Kavali, which screened for over 100 days and created a record.^[9] Following this success, he signed two more movies in the same year, which could not succeed at the box office. He has acted in many movies since then. His notable movies are Khushi (2003), Rishi (2005), Kallarali Hoovagi (2006) and Ganesha Matte Banda (2008). Regarding his performance in Khushi, a critic noted, "Vijay is like Rahul Dravid of Indian cricket. He has churned out emotions very well".^[10]

Vijay did not have a single release in 2010. His much delayed films Shravana, Vinayaka Geleyara Balaga and the multi-starrer Kalla Malla Sulla released in 2011 with the latter two films earning favourable reviews. In 2012, he starred again in a multi-starrer comedy Snehitaru, which received a mixed response at the box office. In 2013, Vijay was a contestant and winner in the much talked about Kannada version of the reality show Bigg Boss in its first season, which started with 13 contestants.^[11][12] Vijay has been reportedly paid Rs. 5 million prize money.^[13] In 2016, he starred in the biographical Shivayogi Sri Puttayyajja and won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor.

Personal life

Recording session

Vijay is the eldest child of producer S. A. Chinne Gowda and his wife Jayamma. he has a elder sister and a younger brother Sriimurali, is a popular Kannada film actor. His paternal aunt Parvathamma Rajkumar was a prominent film producer and distributor in Kannada cinema. He is the cousin of actors Shiva Rajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar. On 26 August 2007, he married a Tulu-speaking girl, Spandana, the daughter of Assistant Commissioner of Police, B. K. Shivaram.^[14][15] The couple has a son named Shourya. Spandana died on 7 August 2023 from cardiac arrest in Bangkok.^[16][17]

In 2013, it was announced that he had joined other Bollywood and international celebrities in the TeachAids initiative, a state-of-the-art approach to worldwide HIV prevention, developed at Stanford University.^[18]

Filmography

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1982	Chalisuva Modagalu	Judge	Credited as Master Raghavendra
1989	Parashuram	Crowd member	Special appearance in the song "Kadre Thappu Kondre Thappu"
1991	Aralida Hoovugalu	Vijay's nephew
1993	Jaga Mechida Huduga	Young Shivu
	Kollura Sri Mookambika	Young Shankaracharya
	Chinnari Mutha	Mutta	Karnataka State Film Award for Best Child Actor (Male)
1994	Kotreshi Kanasu	Kotreshi	National Film Award for Best Child Artist
1995	Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai	Young Ganayogi Panchakshara Gawai
1998	Swami Vivekananda	Young Narendra	Hindi film
2002	Ninagagi	Tarun
	Prema Qaidi	Vijay		[19]
	Romeo Juliet	Achyuth
2003	Heart Beats	Vikky		[20]
	Preetisle Beku	Ganesha
	Vikram	Vikram
	Khushi	Vijay
	Vijaya Simha	Vijay
2004	Avale Nanna Gelathi	Akash
2005	Rishi	Hari
2006	Shri	Shreekanth
	Sevanthi Sevanthi	Devu
	Kallarali Hoovagi	Jayadeva
2007	Ee Rajeev Gandhi Alla	Rajiv		[21]
	Naanu Neenu Jodi	Arjun
2008	Beladingalagi Baa	Vivek
	Minchina Ota	Kishore
	Ganesha Matte Banda	Ganesha
	Mast Maja Maadi	Ramu
2009	Nam Yajamanru	Alok
	Karanji	Viji
	IPC Section 300	Viji
	Gokula	Raja
2010	Khiladi Krishna	Krishna
	Aithalakkadi	Himself	Special appearance
2011	Shravana	Vijay
	Vinayaka Geleyara Balaga	Viju
	Vighneshwara	Vijay
	Kalla Malla Sulla	Raghu
	Naliyona Bara	Rajeev
2012	Snehitaru	Vittal
	Golmaal	Chakravarthy		[22]
2013	Chella Pilli	Hemanth
	Bhajarangi	Himself	Special appearance
2014	Brahmashri Narayana Guru Swamy		Tulu film
	Paramashiva	Raghu
	Fair & Lovely	Abhimanyu
2015	Vamshodharaka	Vishwa
2016	Shivayogi Sri Puttayyajja	Puttaraj Gawai	Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor
	Ranatantra	Gautham
	Apoorva	Vijay Raghavendra
	Nanna Ninna Prema Kathe	Shankar
2017	Srikanta	Tarun
	Chowka	Surya Shetty
	Eradu Kanasu	Muthu
	Happy New Year	Raghavendra
	Toss	Madhav
	Mass Leader	Vijay
	Jani	Jani
2018	Kismath	Vijay	Also director
	Raja Loves Radhe	Raja
	Pardesi C/O London	Vijay
2019	Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya	Dharma
2020	Malgudi Days	Laxmi Narayana Malgudi
2021	Seetharam Benoy Case No. 18	Seetharam
2023	Kaasina Sara	Sundaresh
	Raaghu	Raaghu
	Savitri	Prashant
	O Manase	Karthik
	Kadda Chithra	Vijay Kshatriya
	Marichi	Bhairav Naik
2024	Case of Kondana	Wilson
	Jog 101	Vikram
	Grey Games	Dr. Ram		[23]
2025	Nimagondu Sihi Suddi	Dr. Vikas	Cameo appearance
	FIR 6 to 6	Inspector Garuda		[24]
	Rippon Swamy †	TBA	Filming

Singer

Year	Film	Song	Co Singer
2006	Sevanthi Sevanthi	"Jaaji Mallige Node"	Shreya Ghoshal
2008	Beladingalagi Baa	"Baa Maara"	Shamitha Malnad
2008	Ganesha Matthe Banda	"Gopika"	V. Manohar
2009	Namyajamanru	"Ee Hrudaya"	Nanditha
2011	Vinayaka Geleyara Balaga	"Yaarivalee Hudugi"
		"Ganeshanige Garike"	Naveen Krishna, Shashank Sheshagiri
2014	Fair & Lovely	"Haage Ondu"	Vijayaa Shankar
2016	Nanna Ninna Prema Kathe	"Majabhhothagide"	Anuradha Bhat
2016	Akira	"Alisade Husiyagide"
2017	Toss	"Yavude Sammandha"
2018	Aduva Gombe	"Madarangee Madarangee"	Anuradha Bhat
2018	Kismath	"Preethiyallodane"
		"Kismath Theme"

Television

Year	Title	Role	Note(s)	Ref.
1998	Attige		Tele-serial
2013	Bigg Boss Kannada	Self	Winner; Season 1
2014	Nenapina Idiot-Box	Radio jockey		[25]
2016–2018	Drama Juniors	Judge		[26]
2017–2023	Dance Karnataka Dance	Judge
2022	Dancing Champion	Judge		[27]
2022	Super Queen	Judge		[28]