Harini (Kannada actress)


Harini is a former actress in the Kannada cinema. She was active during the 1950s and 1960s, retiring at the peak of her career. As of 2006 she lived in Bangalore.

Early life

Harini was born in 1937 to Srinivasa Upadhya and Bharathi in Udupi as their fourth child. Her brother Vadiraj was also an actor and producer. She was cast in Balakrishna roles in Tamil Film Haridas. She appeared as child artist in films like Sri Murugan and Kannika for which she received one rupee for delivering the dialogues very nicely. She became full fledged heroine through tamil film Punyavathi.

Career

Harini made her debut as leading lady in Jaganmohini in the role of Mohini at the age of 15. She wore a swim suit and hence was the first heroine to wear a swim suit on the Kannada film screen. The film became a first silver jubilee hit and made Harini an overnight star. Harini got 200 letters for her stellar performance when she was shooting for her second film, bilingual Ratnadeep made simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi.
From thereon Harini played a variety of roles in Dallali, Vichitra Prapancha, Nandi, Nanda Deepa, Kanya Dana, Gandharva Kanya and Pathivratha, among other films. Harini acted with many stars of her time, including Dr. Rajkumar, with whom she acted in more than 10 films, Kalyan Kumar, and Udaykumar.
Harini received precedent award for Best Actress for her films Nanda Deepa and Mangala Muhurtha.
Sathi Sukanya, released in 1968, was her last film. Harini married in 1972 and moved to Saudi Arabia, staying there for 12 years.
Apart from acting Harini tried her hand in film production too. She along with her brothers Vadiraj-Jawahar produced some meaningful films under the banner names Sri Bharathi Chitra and Vijaya Bharathi. Some of the films produced by Harini are Nandi, Nanda Deepa, Nava Jeevana, Namma Makkalu, and Seetha.

Filmography