Showing all artists born in 1945

Vinu Chakravarthy is a Tamil actor, script writer and director who is known for acting in more than 1000 movies in Tamill, Telugu, Kannada, Badaga and Malayalam mostly as a comedian, supporting actor or in a villanous role. The 2007 released tamil movie Muni was his landmark 1000th movie.

Chakravarthy was born on December 15, 1945 in Usilampatti to Adimoola Thevar and Manjuvani Ammal. He studied at Wesley School, Royapettah and graduated in commerce from A. M. Jain College.

On completion of his education, Chakravarthy worked as a Reserve Sub-Inspector at the Ice House police station for six months before joining the Southern Railways where he worked for four years.

Chakravarthy was working as a script writer for Kannada director Puttanna Kanagal when he was noticed by film producer Tiruppur Mani who, in 1977, gave him a role in the Kannada film Parasangada Gendetimma which was later remade into Tamil. Since then, Chakravarthy has made over 1,000 films in four South Indian languages - 900 in Tamil, 30 in Malayalam, 5 in Telugu and one in Badaga language. He has also directed movies on his own and is credited with introducing sex siren Silk Smitha.

Shekhar Kapur is a critically acclaimed Indian film director, producer and actor. He rose to popularity with the Hindi language movie Bandit Queen based upon the life of Phoolan Devi, an infamous Indian outlaw. His historical biopics of Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth and its sequel The Golden Age) garnered 7 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Cate Blanchett.

Kapur was born in Lahore, Punjab, British India (now in Pakistan) to Kulbhushan Kapur, a doctor who had a flourishing practice, and Sheel Kanta, a journalist and stage actress.  The nephew of actors Vijay Anand and Dev Anand, he was discouraged to get into show business by his father.  His schooling was at Modern School, New Delhi.  He studied economics at St. Stephen's College. At 22, Kapur became a Chartered Accountant with ICAEW in England, having studied accountancy at the behest of his parents.

Shekhar Kapur started his career working with a multinational oil company. He moved to Great Britain in 1970, and spent several years working as an accountant and management consultant.

He started his career as an actor in the movie Jaan Hazir Hai (1975) and later in Toote Khilone, in Bollywood. He also appeared in several Hindi television dramas, like Udaan opposite Kavita Chaudhary, and films, but failed to flourish as an actor.

He turned director with the family drama Masoom (1983) starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and a young Jugal Hansraj. The film followed the story of a young illegitimate boy who struggles to find acceptance from his stepmother. He then directed the 1987 science-fiction film Mr. India starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Amrish Puri in his most famous role as the villain Mogambo. Puri's most famous dialogue in this film "Mogambo Khush Hua" is still remembered.  In 1994 he directed the critically acclaimed Bandit Queen and also played a cameo in the film as a truck driver.

Kapur was also partly involved in the production of several Bollywood films before he abandoned them. He co-directed the 1989 film Joshilaay, which starred Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Meenakshi Sheshadri. In 1992 he was set to direct another science-fiction film titled Time Machine, which was to star Aamir Khan, Raveena Tandon, Naseeruddin Shah and Rekha, but halfway through production he was forced by financial problems to abandon the film project.  He co-directed Dushmani, starring Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff and Manisha Koirala.

In 1998, he received international recognition for directing the Academy Award-winning period film Elizabeth, a fictional account of the reign of British Queen Elizabeth I nominated for 7 Oscars. The 2007 sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, was nominated for 2 Oscars. He was accused of being anti-British by British tabloids for his portrayal of the British Army and the Empire in the 2002 movie The Four Feathers. However, he denied being anti-British, and stated that he was merely "anti-colonisation".

Kapur was the executive producer of the film The Guru. He also established an Indian film company with Ram Gopal Verma and Mani Ratnam, though the group has thus far produced only one film, Dil Se.. (1998), starring Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala. Kapur executive-produced the Bollywood-themed musical Bombay Dreams by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which has been running in London's the West End since 2002, and on Broadway in New York City since 2004.

In 2005, Kapur worked with Okan Quail on Hunji!, a story of a young Indian maid who idolised Sachin Tendulkar. Although it gained some acclaim as one of his finest films, critics across the UK and India called it a flop.

Original film poster of Elizabeth. The film brought actress Cate Blanchett to international attention. She won several awards for her portrayal of Elizabeth, notably a BAFTA and a Golden Globe in 1998

In 2006, Kapur formed Liquid Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience. The Shakti titles of Kapur and Deepak Chopra's company debuted with Devi and The Sadhu.  Devi is about "a fierce feminine warrior, stronger than the Gods themselves . . . a champion of the heavens, and the protector of man", while The Sadhu is about one man's choice between his spiritual oath and his human instinct,"

In an unusual role for him, Kapur provided the voice of Mahatma Gandhi in the Charkha Audio books title of The Story of My Experiments with Truth, alongside Nandita Das as narrator.

He served as judge on a reality TV series, India's Got Talent, aired on Colors. He was a member of the jury at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in May 2010.

Shekhar Kapur is also hosting a show Pradhanmantri on ABP news. The show will be on airing on Saturday July 13 - 2013 at 10 PM on ABP news. In this Television series his role as the narrator of politics-based reality series PradhanMantri, which aims to bring to the audience the never seen before facets of Indian history.


His future projects include Long Walk to Freedom, Paani, The Last Full Measure. A third episode in the Queen Elizabeth series is planned. According to screenwriter John Rogers, the success of Elizabeth led to Kapur being tapped to work on an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, but the project was eventually shelved.  Kapur also tentatively planned to helm a motion picture account of the life of the Buddha, entitled Buddha, but the plans were later dropped for unstated reasons. He also planned to adapt Larklight, a book by Philip Reeve. Kapur also traveled to Yerevan, Armenia to explore the possibility of making a film about the Armenian Genocide.

In an interview with Associated Content, Kapur announced he is no longer attached to Larklight.

He is set to direct Paani. The film reported to star Sushant Singh Rajput. The film will be produced by Aditya Chopra.  Its music will be composed by A. R. Rahman.  The announcement for the film was made at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in 2010.  He has also tied up with Keyur Patel, Chairman of Fuse Global for the co-funding of Paani, who is one of the major financiers in Hollywood when it comes to Mega-projects. is an American actor and a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.

James just wrapped on The Last Knights (2013) shot in The Czech Republic and directed by Kaz Kiriya. the film stars Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman.Recent credits include "Ghost Team One", The Words (2012) directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, as well as Christopher Gladis' film Dose of Reality (2012). 

He also recently finished filming Vishwaroopam (2013), directed by the actor/director Kamal Haasan. Other notable roles include Rudolf Hess in the CBS miniseries, Hitler: The Rise of Evil opposite Robert Carlyle, Agent Moss in Hellboy, and had a featured role in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist.

On stage, Babson most recently played Michael in the Václav Havel play, "Unveiling" at The Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica, California.Babson acted in the 2013 Indian film, Vishwaroopam (Tamil) / Vishwaroop (Hindi) starring Kamal Haasan, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah, Rahul Bose, and Shekhar Kapur.

The movie met with high critical acclaim and grossed 1 billion ($20 million) in 10 days and is one of the biggest hits in Indian cinema.  A sequel to the bilingual film is currently being shot called Vishwaroopam 2 (Tamil) / Vishwaroop 2 (Hindi). Due to scheduling conflicts, Mr Babson will not be invloved in this project.

Vani Jairam (born as Kalaivani on 30 November 1945), also credited as Vani Jayaram, is an Indian singer. She is best known as a playback singer in South Indian cinema, although she has a wider repertoire of singing several genres of music such as Hindustani classical music, Carnatic classical music, Ghazal, Thumri and Bhajan. Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over four decades. She has done playback for over thousand Indian movies recording over 10,000 songs. In addition, she has recorded thousands of devotionals and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.

Renowned for her vocal range and easy adaptability to any difficult composition, Vani has often been the choice for several composers across India through 1970's until late 1990's. Apart from Hindi, she has sung in several Indian languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Gujarati and Bengali languages.
Vani won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer three times and also has won State Government awards from the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.In 2012, she was honored with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South for her achievements in South Indian film music.

Vani Jairam was born as Kalaivani in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, in a family of classically trained musicians as a fifth daughter in a family of six daughters and three sons. Her mother Padmavathi, trained under Ranga Ramunaja Iyengar, enrolled her into his classes where he taught her a few Muthuswami Dikshitar kritis. Later she was given a formal Carnatic training under the guidance of Cuddalore Srinivas Iyengar, T. R. Balasubramanian and R. S. Mani. Vani was glued to the Radio Ceylon channel and was attracted towards Hindi film songs to the extent that she used to memorize and reproduce the entire orchestration of the songs that used to repeatedly play on the Radio. At the age of 8, she gave her first public performance at the All India Radio, Madras. Post her studies, Vani was employed with the State Bank of India, Madras and later in 1967, she was transferred to the Hyderabad branch.

Post her marriage in the late 1960's, Vani moved to Mumbai with her husband Jayaram to set up her family. Upon request, she was transferred to the Mumbai branch of her bank. Knowing her singing skills, Jayaram persuaded Vani to get trained in the Hindustani classical music and she got enrolled under Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan of the Patiala gharana. Her rigorous training under him made her quit from her bank job and take up music as her profession. She was introduced to the composer Vasant Desai in 1969 who was recording a Marathi album with singer Kumar Gandharv. Upon listening to her voice, Desai roped in her to sing the song "Runanubandhacha" for the same album along with Kumar Gandharv. The album released to much popularity among the Marathi audience and the duet song was well received.

In 1971, Jairam featured in the Hindi feature film Guddi. She recorded three songs for Guddi, and "Bole Re Papi Hara," a song based on the Hindustani raga "Miyan ki Malhar,". She was awarded the Tansen Samman (for best classical-based song in a Hindi film), the Lions International Best Promising Singer award, the All India Cinegoers Association award, and the All India Film-goers Association award for the Best Playback Singer in 1971.

She went on to sing a few songs each for music directors of Hindi cinema, including Chitragupta, Naushad (a classical song in Pakeezah (1972) and a duet with Asha Bhosle in Aaina (1977), Madan Mohan (a duet with Kishore Kumar in the film Ek Mutthi Aasmaan), O.P. Nayyar (several songs from the film Khoon Ka Badla Khoon including duets with Mohammed Rafi and also with Uttara Kelkar and Pushpa Pagdhare), R. D. Burman (a duet with Mukesh in Chhalia), Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, and Jaidev (a duet with Manna Dey in Parinay and a solo in Solwa Saawan). Her songs in Meera (1979), composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar, won her the Filmfare Award.Around 1974, she shifted her base to Madras and soon became a sought-after singer in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. In 1981, she sang Kanana Poikayil Kalabham along with K. J. Yesudas in the composition of M. K. Arjunan for the film Ariyapedatha Rahasiyam (1981) directed by P. Venu.She worked with almost all the leading music directors of south namely M. S. Viswanathan, M. B. Sreenivasan, K. V. Mahadevan, M. K. Arjunan, Jerry Amaldev Ilayaraaja and the noted Bengali music directorSalil Chowdhary. With the future Academy award winner, A. R. Rahman, she recorded a duet with S. P. Balasubramanyam in the song "Sugam sugam athu" for the film Vandicholai Chinnarasu in 1994.

Songs like Ezhu Swarangalukkul, Keliviyin Nayangane, Ennulil Engo, Yaaradhu sollamal, Megamae Megamae, Kavidhai Kelungal Nadhamenum "Aana kana" and "Sugamana ragangale" Priyathama Karuneya Thoreya, Sada kannali pranayada, Hodeya doora O jothegara and other songs are her musical tracks that were regarded as difficult.

Besides Hindi and Tamil, Vani Jairam has made recordings in Gujarati, Marathi, Marwari, Haryanvi, Bengali and Tulu, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Oriya. She has been awarded many prestigious awards, among them are Best Female Playback Singer for states of Gujarat (1975), Tamil Nadu (1980) and Orissa (1984).One of her most famous Marathi songs, "Runanubandhachya", is a duet with the classical Hindustani singer Kumar Gandharva. This song was composed by Vani's mentor Vasant Desai for a Marathi drama called Dev Deenaghari Dhaavlaa. The lyrics were written by Bal Kolhatkar.

Vani Jairam has recorded "Holi Songs" and "Thumri Dadra & Bhajans" with Pandit Briju Maharaj. She has also recorded "Gita Govindam" composed by Prafullakar with Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohopatra playing the Pakhawaj. Vani Jairam has also released "Murugan Songs" with songs written by her with music composed by her.
Her more recently released songs include "Thiruppugazh" in the film soundtrack for Kaaviya Thalaivan, and "Narayana" in the film Ramanujan.

The P. Suseela Trust honoured Vani Jairam at a grand function in Hyderabad, with a citation and a purse of one lakh. The event was widely covered on television. On 28 May 2014, Vani was felicitated in Bhubaneshwar for her contribution to Odia films. Preceding it was the PBS Puraskar Award in Hyderabad, instituted in memory of the inimitable P.B. Srinivos. On 30 July 2014, Yuva Kala Vahini, an organisation in Hyderabad, presented her the 'Pride of Indian Music' Award. ETV Kannada channel felicitated Vani jairam by giving the title Evergreen voice for her outstanding contribution to the Kannada film industry. Actor V. Ravi Chandran, actress Jayanthi, film maker Bhagawan, Vani's husband Jairam and others were present.She spoke to the audience in pure Kannada and sang some of her own Kannada film songs. Vani remembered Dr.Rajkumar on the stage and said that she is missing her favourite star.

M. R. Viswanathan (born 1 July 1945), best known by his stage name Visu, is an Indian writer, director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to director K. Balachander until becoming a director himself. He later began acting, with his first film being Kudumbam Oru Kadambam directed by S. P. Muthuraman.

A philanthropist, Visu had been supporting the needy through his own foundation. He became known for hosting live debates on television, namely Visuvin Makkal Arangam on Jaya TV and Arattai Arangam on Sun TV.

In 2013, Visu fell ill while shooting for Alex Pandian with kidney failure, requiring him to undergo dialysis three times a week for the remainer of his life. In 2015, he was diagnosed with a throat cancer, which was successfully removed surgically. However, it led to a permanent change in his voice.

Thiagarajan is an Indian actor, Director and producer of Tamil films.  He is the father of Tamil actor Prashanth.

Sharada (born 12 June 1945) is a three-time National Award winning Indian actress and Indian Parliament member. She originally hails from Andhra Pradesh. She has achieved success through Malayalam movies. Initially she did many supporting roles in Telugu films and later on moved to Malayalam film industry and gained success there. She is also known as Urvasi Sharada because earlier the National Film Award for Best Actress was officially designated the Urvasi Award. Sharada has been selected for the prestigious NTR National Award instituted by the Andhra Pradesh state government for the year 2010.

Sharada was born Saraswati Devi in Tenali, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. Her parents Venkateswar Rao and Satyavathi Devi belonged to a family of agriculturalists. She has a brother, named Mohan Rao. Sharada was sent to Madras in her childhood to live with her grandmother Kanakamma. Sharada describes her grandmother as a strict disciplinarian who in the later days wouldn’t even let the heroes touch her and allowed rehearsals only on Sundays. Sharada started to learn dance when she was six. She used to perform during Dasara and other temple festivals. It was because of her mother's desire that she learned dance. Her mother wanted her to become a big star in cine field. Though Sharada's father was not too interested in the idea, he didn't stop her.

Sharada married Chalam, a famous Telugu hero, producer and comedian. He was her co-star in her debut film Tandrulu Kodukulu. They divorced later on.

When she grew up, she started acting in theatre, under the supervision of her grandmother. In Indian theatre and cinema, the female lead stars used to leave the field as soon as they are married. So, most of the female lead stars were very young compared to the male leads. Sharada remembers in one of the plays she acted as the wife of a person 30 years older than she was when she was just 13.Her debut in films was with a minor role in the Telugu film Kanyasulkam. However, she returned to theatre after it and did a major role in the Telugu version of Rakta Kanneeru, a Tamil drama. The play went to get staged over 100 times in Tamil Nadu.

In 1959, she began her career as Sharada. The change in name was attributed to the presence of a few other actors in the industry with the name Saraswati. She came under contract to L.V. Prasad, a Telugu producer. Though she didn't get to act in any of his films, she got her formal training in acting under him, including the Navarasa lessons. She largely attributes her performances and growth in the field to this training. Her first break came with the Akkineni Nageswara Rao starrer Iddaru Mithrulu, which was a major hit. Noted for the role in the film, she got chances from Tamil and Malayalam films as well. The year 1965 changed her career as Sharada carved her niche for herself in the Malayalam film industry with her performances in Shakuntala, Murappennu, Udhyogastha by P. Venu, Kattu Thulasi and Inapravukal. After that, she focused in Malayalam films, acting only a few roles in other languages. Recognition came in 1967 in the form of a national honorary award for her performances in various films of 1966 including Iruttinte Athmavu. The award was the predecessor to the National Film Award for Best Actress, which was instituted in 1968. In 1969, she won her first National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Thulabharam. She went on to win the award 2 more times, for Swayamvaram (1972, Malayalam) and Nimajjanam (1978, Telugu). She also won the Kerala State Film Awards for Best Actress one time.

Later she saw success in Telugu films in protagonist roles. She was so popular that she did lead roles in films starring most of the successful heroes of Telugu film industry. Post 1993, she became choosy and did only a few films. Her major films off late were Mazhathullikkilukkam (2002, Malayalam), Rappakal (2005, Malayalam), Nayika (2011, Malayalam) and Stalin (2006, Telugu).

She owns a chocolate factory named Lotus Chocolates. She was elected as Member of Parliament on Telugu Desam Party ticket from her native town of Tenali.

Kanthimathi or Ganthimathi (died September 9 2011) was a Tamil stage and film actress. She had acted in over 500 films.

Kanthimathi was born in Manamadurai in the then Ramnad District of British India in 1945. She started acting in dramas and entered films at the age of eleven.

The role which got her noticed was the portrayal of Mayil's mother in 16 Vayathinile. Other important Tamil films in which she acted include Mann Vasanai, Muthu and Karagattakaran. She was awarded the Kalaimamani Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu for her contribution to Tamil cinema.

She acted as mother and grandmother almost to all actors and actresses like M.G.R, Rajinikanth, Kamalhassan, Vijaykanth, Sathyaraj, Prabhu, Vijay, Revathi, Radha, Ambika, Radhika, etc. Other actors or actresses cannot utter the non-lexical fillers like 'aaahhhnnn' and proverbs like "Chithada kalli viragu odaika ponalam kathala mullu kothoda kuthidichan" (When a lazy girl is forced to go for the work of cutting the firewood she may complain that aloe vera thorns poked her in a bunch) like she could.

Ramesh Kanna is a Tamil film director and actor and acts in supporting roles and comedian roles.


Ramesh Kanna was born in Chennai and third child to the family. He acted in "Nadaga kavalar" R.S.Manohar's drama troup from the age of 5 as child arttist more than 1000 dramas up to his age of 10 and was appreciated by Dr. Radhakrishnan, President of India at that time and puratchi kavigner Baradhi dhasan. He became assistant to directors Karaikudi Narayanan, Pandiarajan ('Aan Pavam'), Kodi Ramakrishna, Vikraman ('Poove Unakkaga', 'Suryavamsam', 'Unnai Ninaithu' and 'Priyamana Thozhi') and K.S.Ravikumar. Only after Dierctor vikraman introduced him as comedian in "unnidathil ennai koduthen" he came to limelight.



Kanna has acted in notable roles in films such as Unnai Ninaithu, Friends, Padayappa, and Villain. He has also appeared in supporting roles in films such as Thulluvatho Illamai.

Sangili Murugan is a Tamil film actor, script writer and producer. During the 1980s and 90s, he was an actor doing negative and supporting roles in Tamil films. He has also worked as production controller in a number of films. His birth name is Muthuvel Servai Murugan; the prefix "Sangili" was added to his name after the character he played in his first film "ORU KAI OSAI". He is the founder and owner of the production and distribution company, Murugan Cine Arts, and has produced over 12 films.

Gokula Krishnan was an Indian film director, who has directed Tamil films. He was primarily active in the 1980s and early 1990s and is most noted for his work on films featuring actor Karthik. He also extensively worked with Malayalam director Fazil, when he made Tamil films, helping write dialogues.

Gokula Krishnan made his directorial debut in the early 1980s, before choosing to prioritise his work as a script-writer to Malayalam director Fazil, when he made Tamil films. In the mid 1990s, Gokula Krishnan made three consecutive films with actor Karthik. Muthu Kaalai (1995), Poovarasan (1996) and Udhavikku Varalaamaa (1998) all fared poorly at the box office.

He died after a brief illness on 28 October 2008, leaving behind his wife, Kavitha.