| 8 | | Telugu/Tamil/Hindi actress born in Peddapuram, East Godavari Dist. as Anjani Kumari. Started on the Telugu stage aged 10 under her future husband, composer [[Adi Narayana Rao]], who instructed her in music and dance. Also stage actress with the Young Men’s Happy Club. Performed in plays like Srinivasa Kalyanam and Premavijayam and gave live dance shows. Film début in [[C. Pullaiah]]’s Gollabhama playing the vamp Mohini. Early roles continued the ‘vamp’ image (e.g. [[Balaramaiah |
| | 8 | Telugu/Tamil/Hindi actress born in Peddapuram, East Godavari Dist. as Anjani Kumari. Started on the Telugu stage aged 10 under her future husband, composer [[Adi Narayana Rao]], who instructed her in music and dance. Also stage actress with the Young Men’s Happy Club. Performed in plays like Srinivasa Kalyanam and Premavijayam and gave live dance shows. Film début in [[C. Pullaiah]]’s Gollabhama playing the vamp Mohini. Early roles continued the ‘vamp’ image (e.g. [[Balaramaiah, G|Balaramaiah]]’s Balaraju, [[Keelugurram]], [[R. Padmanabhan]]’s [[Raksharekha]], [[T.R. Sundaram]]’s [[Sarvadhikari]]). These directors, and [[Raghavaiah]], were associated with her early career, and her best-known screen image, e.g. in the famous [[Swapna Sundari]] playing a heavenly damsel descending to earth, followed by hits like Raghavaiah’s Anarkali (which ran for 100 weeks) and Suvarna Sundari, [[T.R. Raghunath]]’s Kanavane Kan Kanda Daivam and P. Neelakantan’s [[Chakravarthi Thirumagal]], which made her a top female Telugu and Tamil star for several years. Often acted with Telugu superstars A. Nageshwara Rao and [[NTR]] and, in Tamil, with [[MGR]] and Gemini Ganesh. Started Ashwini Pics in 1949 in partnership with [[A. Nageshwara Rao]] and Gopala Rao which in 1951 became Anjali Pics Studio, in partnership with her husband Adi Narayana Rao débuting with [[Prasad]]’s [[Poongothai/Paradesi]]. In the 70s mainly played mother roles. Vice-president of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (1950-51). |