Arundhati Nag (née Rao; born 1955/1956[1]) is an Indian actress. She has been involved with multilingual Theatre in India, for over 25 years, first in Mumbai where she got involved with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), and did various productions in Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi theatre, and then in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English, in Bangalore.
Arundhati Nag | |
|---|---|
 Arundhati in 2010 | |
| Born | Arundhati Rao 1955 or 1956 (age 68–69)[1] |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Padmavati Rao (sister) ; Ananth Nag (Brother-in-law) ; Gayatri (actress) (co-sister)[2] |
They stayed in Chintamani, Karnataka for a few years.
Following her marriage to Kannada actor-director Shankar Nag (1980–1990), her association with theatre continued in Bangalore, where she performed several plays in Kannada: Girish Karnad's Anju Mallige, 27 Mavalli Circle based on the famous play Wait Until Dark, Sandhya Chayya (Jayant Dalvi), Girish Karnad's Nagamandala, and Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage as Hulaguru Huliyavva. She also worked in several Kannada movies: Accident (1984), Parameshi Prema Prasanga (1984) and Nodiswamy, Navirodu Heege (1987).[3]
Nag built a theatre space in Bangalore Ranga Shankara: .[4][5][6][7] She is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2008), the Padma Shri (2010) and the National Film Awards (57th) in 2010.[8][9]
Career
editNag's career spans over 40 years of theatre, film and television. She is the founder and the Managing Trustee of the Sanket Trust, established in 1992, which runs Ranga Shankara, a theatre space in Bangalore.,.[10][11]
The annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, now in its twelfth year, has become a regular feature on Bangalore's cultural calendar.[12]
Nag continues to be actively involved in theatre: her most recent works include Girish Karnad's "Bikhre Bimb" (Hindi) and "Odakalu Bimba" (Kannada).
Her last major movie was The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016), in which she played the mother of the mathematical wizard Ramanujan. She has also appeared in Hindi movies including Paa (2009), "Sapnay" (1997) and "Dil Se" (1998), Kannada movies including Golibar (1991), Jogi (2005) and "Andar Bahar", and Malayalam Da Thadiya (2012) and Drama (2018 film)
Personal life
editNag was born in 1956 in Delhi, stayed in Netaji Nagar. Her family moved to Mumbai when she was 10. At 17, she met Shankar Nag, also a theatre artist.[13] Six years later, the two got married and moved to Bangalore. Shankar became a well-known film actor, and later a director, most remembered for his TV adaptation of R. K. Narayan's Malgudi Days (1987).[7] They had a daughter together, Kaavya.
In 1990, Shankar died in a car accident. Arundhati continued to act in theatre, and began to work towards realising her dream of a theatre space, which in 2004, finally materialised into Ranga Shankara, which is today one of India's premier venues for theatre.
Filmography
editActor
edit| Year | Film | Role | Language | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 22 June 1897 | Marathi | ||
| 1983 | Nodi Swamy Navirodu Hige | Jaya | Kannada | |
| 1984 | Accident | Maya Rani | Kannada | Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1985 | Parameshi Prema Prasanga | Ramamani | Kannada | |
| Poi Mugangal | Tamil | |||
| 1993 | Golibar | Bharathi Devi | Kannada | |
| 1996 | Shiva Sainya | Shiva's mentor | Kannada | |
| 1997 | Minsaara Kanavu | Mother Superior | Tamil | |
| 1998 | Dil Se.. | AIR station director | Hindi | |
| 2003 | Ek Alag Mausam | Aparna's mother | Hindi | |
| 2005 | Jogi | Bhagyakka | Kannada | Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 2007 | Chaurahen | Nandakumar Nair | Hindi | |
| 2009 | Paa | Vidya's mother/Bum | Hindi | National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 2012 | Da Thadiya | "Knight Rider" | Malayalam | |
| 2013 | Andhar Bahar | Kannada | ||
| 2016 | The Man Who Knew Infinity | Srinivasa Ramanujan's mother | English | |
| 2018 | Drama | Rosamma John Chacko | Malayalam | |
| 2022 | Escaype Live | Lakshmi Amma | Hindi | Webseries |
| 2022 | Medium Spicy | Marathi |
Assistant director
edit- A Passage to India (1984)
- Indian Summer (1987)
Awards
edit- 2008: Won: Sangeet Natak Akademi Award – Theatre, Acting[14]
- 2009: Won: 57th National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress – Paa[15]
- 2010: Awarded: Padma Shri Award[16]
References
edit- ^ a b "Curtain call". harmonyindia.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
- ^ Iyengar, Vidya (19 June 2016). "'I lead my life in disbelief'". Bangalore Mirror. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
- ^ Arundhati Nag Profile and Interview Archived 7 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine mumbaitheatreguide.com.
- ^ "Home Events - RangaShankara". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ A theatre of one's own[usurped] Frontline, Volume 21 – Issue 24, 20 November – 3 December 2004.
- ^ Dream of a theatre Archived 22 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine The Hindu, 21 November 2004.
- ^ a b "Ready for an encore". The Times of India. 28 September 2003. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
- ^ Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi.
- ^ "Padmashree". Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ "Sanket Trust". Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ Ranga Shankara
- ^ Ranga Shankara theatre festival rolls on[usurped] The Hindu, 16 November 2004.
- ^ Jayaraman, Pavitra (15 August 2009). "Freedom to express: Arundhati Nag". Livemint. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ "SNA: List of Akademi Awardees". Sangeet Natak Akademi Official website. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016.
- ^ "57th National Film Awards – 2009" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. 2009. p. 71. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 March 2016.
- ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
External links
edit