Surviving as an actor is hugely challenging for any budding actor in the current scenario, so being loved for 50 years as the king of romance is a great feat in itself. One of the finest actors in Kannada films, Dr Srinath fondly known as Pranaya Raja completes 50 years in the word of cinema this year.
Bengaluru Chronicle takes a look at this simple, lovable and great personality who’s actually name is Narayana Swamy about romantic journey so far. In fact, the Bengaluru International Film Festival celebrates the journey by screening two of his recent films as part of the fest.
Recently, the Karnataka Chalanchitra Academy too hosted a special programme celebrating Dr Srinath’s journey, where he emotionally recollected his life so far.
It is best noted that Dr Srinath remains the second actor in Kannada films to complete 100 films as a lead actor after the legendary late Dr Rajkumar. He has so far acted as ‘hero’ in not less than 150-plus movies and another 100 plus in character roles. He has also produced six feature films and a short film.
He began his journey with a small role in Lagna Patrike in 1967. He graduated to a lead actor/hero with the film Madhura Milna in 1969, and thereafter his work with Minugu Taare Kalapa in Anirikshitha brought him fame. One of the highlights of his career is being paired opposite the late actress Manjula, for no less than 35 films. They shared a great chemistry on the screen. His second most remembered partnership is that of his association with the director, the late Puttana Kanagala. He also owes his success to his other KSL Swamee (Ravi).
“Puttanna Kanagala cast me in his film after I had already acted in 30 films. In fact, he wanted to cast Vishnuvardhan in Shubha Mangala (his first film under Puttanna’s direction) but eventually I got lucky. However, I had to look thin for the film and it was actor Shivaram who helped me lose weight. We would go jogging, and Shivaram made sure I lost weight and acted in that film. It’s history now,” Srinath recollects.
The actor lost his mother when he was just one, and it was his father Ramaswamy who brought him up along with his elder brother the late CR Simha. The latter is another great actor and theatre personality. “I was starstuck by the posters of Kannada movies of the times. I was also an admirer of popular actress Asha Parekh, she was my initial aspiration for cinema,” he adds. In fact, the legend actually went to Mumbai to meet her, but came back disappointed.
