Arundhati Nag
Arundhati in 2010
Born
Arundhati Rao

1955 or 1956 (age 67–68)[1]
Delhi, India
OccupationActress
Years active1973–present
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1980; died 1990)​
Children1
RelativesPadmavati Rao (sister) ; Ananth Nag (Brother-in-law) ; Gayatri (actress) (co-sister)[2]

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.

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 dedicated to quality theatre 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

Nag'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] Ranga Shankara offers a quality theatre experience for theatre lovers in city.[12][13] The annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, now in its twelfth year, has become a regular feature on Bangalore's cultural calendar.[14]

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

Nag 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.[15] 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

Actor

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

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b "Curtain call". harmonyindia.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Arundhati Nag Profile and Interview Archived 7 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine mumbaitheatreguide.com.
  4. ^ "Home Events - RangaShankara". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  5. ^ A theatre of one's own[usurped] Frontline, Volume 21 – Issue 24, 20 November – 3 December 2004.
  6. ^ Dream of a theatre Archived 22 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine The Hindu, 21 November 2004.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi.
  9. ^ "Padmashree". Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  10. ^ "Sanket Trust". Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  11. ^ Ranga Shankara
  12. ^ The HinduManaging Trustee Archived 3 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 9 December 2006.
  13. ^ Arundhati Nag – Making The World See Her Dreams! Archived 25 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine South Asian Women's Forum, 7 March 2005.
  14. ^ Ranga Shankara theatre festival rolls on[usurped] The Hindu, 16 November 2004.
  15. ^ Jayaraman, Pavitra (15 August 2009). "Freedom to express: Arundhati Nag". Livemint. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  16. ^ "SNA: List of Akademi Awardees". Sangeet Natak Akademi Official website. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016.
  17. ^ "57th National Film Awards – 2009" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. 2009. p. 71. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 March 2016.
  18. ^ "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

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