Upendra (actor)

Upendra
Born	Upendra Kundapura, Karnataka
Other names	Uppi
Height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Spouse	Priyanka Upendra
Website	www.facebook.com/RealstarUpendra

Upendra (Kannada: ಉಪೇಂದ್ರ, popularly known as Uppi) is a cine actor, director and script writer. Born in a middle class family at Koteshwara near Kundapura, he belongs to Kannada speaking Kota Brahmin community. Upendra started his career off with film director Kashinath as a writer and an assistant director. His first directorial venture was Tharle Nan Maga. He is the first Indian actor to have ever acted as a robot movie when he made the movie Hollywood directed by Dinesh Babu.

In the late 90s he broke into the scene with the extremely violent Om, which portrayed actual Bangalore gangsters, and this movie is still yet to be released in CDs and DVDs. In contrast to the many Indian movies about heroes with god-like characters, Upendra showed that a hero can have both negative and positive aspects. He followed this up with A, in which he appeared as Surya. Upendra, his next film, starred Raveena Tandon, a popular Bollywood actress. After a decade of acting in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil films, he returned to the role of director with the multi-lingual blockbuster movie Super, which gained acclamation from critics.

Career as a director

He is one of the best writers, professional directors, unusual thinkers, and also proved that he is a good actor. Tharle Nan Maga, his maiden venture as a director, was declared a major success. This film was Jaggesh's first movie as a lead actor. This cult hit is popular even today for its slapstick comedy and out-of the box narration.

He is often considered as the Christopher Nolan on Kanada film Industry. His second movie Shh!!! with Kumar Govindu in the lead was another box office success. This surprise suspense thriller also starred Kashinath and introduced Kumar Govindu as mainstream hero. Interestingly it has a small cameo by Uppi as a wannabe actor in police costume.

His next directorial venture Om was a super hit movie starring Shivrajkumar and Prema. This story explored and exposed Bangalore's underworld. The movie was controversial because of presence of numerous famous real-life rowdy sheeters (underworld gang members). It had a sound track with hit numbers like "Hey Dinakara", and "College Kumaru". And this movie is still playing in theaters in Karnataka

In the movie A, he played the lead role for the first time and it was a massive hit. The screenplay was so cleverly written that audiences watched the movie several times trying to understand the story. {{citation}}: Empty citation (help)

Both A and Upendra were watched and received well by even non-Kannada speaking crowd and the movie Upendra was released in Japan. He gave break in Kannada film industry to music director Guru Kiran and photographer Venu. Bollywood star Deepika Padukone started her film career with Upendra in the Kannada Movie "Aishwarya" Directed by Indrajeet Lankesh.

Upendra came back as a director after 10 years in 2010 with the movie Super. The movie was released in 42 theatres in Bengaluru and 150 theatres all over Karnataka and there are plans to dub it to Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. It tells the story of a NRI big shot who plays lot of political drama to help India become a superpower in 2030.

Endorsements

In 2004 he ventured into Ad film making through his own start-up advertising agency UppiAds. He even acted as brand ambassador for United Breweries, Navratna Oil and Karnataka Milk Federation.

Family

• Wife: Priyanka Upendra
• Son: Ayush
• Daughter: Aishwarya
• Father: Manjunath Rao
• Brother: Surendra
• Mother: Anasuya

Filmography

As director

Year	Film	Lead Actor(s)	Notes
1992	Tharle Nan Maga	Jaggesh	Appears as narrator, writer, lyricist, Debut film as director
1993	Shhh!	Kumar Govind	Cameo appearance, writer, lyricist
1995	Om	Shivaraj Kumar	Voice-over for few extras, writer, Filmfare Best Director award
	Operation Antha	Ambareesh	Cameo appearance, writer, lyricist
1998	A	Himself	Protagonist, writer, lyricist
1999	Swasthik	Raghavendra Rajkumar	Writer, lyricist
	Upendra	Himself	Protagonist, writer, lyricist, Filmfare Best Director award
2010	Super	Himself	Protagonist, writer, lyricist

As actor

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
1989	Anathana Avanthara		Kannada	Uncredited role
1991	Ajagajanthara		Kannada	Uncredited role
1993	Shhh!		Kannada	Cameo appearance
1995	Operation Antha		Kannada	Uncredited role
1998	A	Surya	Kannada
	Kanyadaanam		Telugu	Debut movie in Telegu
1999	Upendra	Naanu	Kannada
2000	Preethse	Chandru	Kannada
	Oke Mata	Sooryam	Telugu
2001	Raa	Sridhar	Telugu
2002	H2O	Udayashankar	Kannada
	Neethone Vuntanu	Ravi	Telugu
	Super Star	Ricky, Deependra	Kannada
	Nagarahavu	Ajay	Kannada
	Naanu Naane	Raja	Kannada
	Hollywood	Upendra, Surendra, Robot US47	Kannada
2003	Kutumba	Vijay	Kannada
	Rakta Kanneeru	Mohan	Kannada
	Gokarna	Sidda	Kannada
2004	Omkara	Sathya	Kannada
2005	Gowramma	Venkat Swamy	Kannada
	News	Guru	Kannada
	Auto Shankar	Shankar	Kannada
2006	Uppi Dada MBBS	Rao Bahaddur Upendra	Kannada
	Tandege Takka Maga		Kannada
	Aishwarya	Abhishek Hegde	Kannada
2007	Parodi	Vijay	Kannada
	Masti	Siddappaji	Kannada
	Toss	Neelakanta	Telugu
	Anatharu	Rudra	Kannada
	Lava Kusha	Chakri	Kannada
2008	Sathyam	Manickvel	Tamil
	Buddhivantha	Joseph Fernandez	Kannada, Telugu	In Telugu as Buddivanthudu
	Mast Maja Maadi		Kannada	Special appearance
2009	Dubai Babu	Babu	Kannada
	Rajani	Rajani	Kannada
2010	Super	Subhash Chandra Gandhi	Kannada, Tamil, Telugu	Billionaire NRI
2011	Srimathi		Kannada	Filming
	Bhimoos Bang Bang Kids		Kannada	Delayed
	Godfather		Kannada

Awards

• Filmfare Award for Best Director (Kannada)-Om (1995).
• Filmfare Award for Best Director (Kannada)-Upendra (1999).

External links

• www.facebook.com/RealstarUpendra
• Upendra at IMDb
• Uppi Stylish Stills
• OurKarnataka
• Uppi Fans' Portal
• Upendra's Telugu interview on YouTube
• Upendra's photo gallery
• Filmmaking is my passion:Upendra