Showing all artists born in 1948

Maharaj Krishna Raina, popularly known as M.K. Raina is one of India's best-known theatre actors and directors. M. K. Raina graduated from National School of Drama in 1970 with Best actor award. Since 1972 he has been freelance theater worker and film person, working all over India in many languages and with many traditional forms.


Maharaj Krishna Raina was born in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Maharaj completed his college in Srinagar and then moved to NSD in delhi on a state scholarship. Raina, born into a Kashmiri Pandit family, comes from a family background of doctors & engineers. His father was also a Political activist, and this also influenced Raina into social activism.


After graduating from National school of drama in 1970, Raina commenced on his work in Indian parallel cinema "27 Down", in which he also plays the lead role of 'Sanjay'. He has produced over 130 plays in 13 launguages. His association with the rural and urban theater across the country has developed into a unique style, where both forms blend together and yet are rich with contemporary meaning and significance.


As an actor, he has worked in more than a hundred plays. He has directed several memorable productions like Kabira Khada Bazar Mein, Karmawali, Lower Depths, Pari Kukh, Kabhi Na Chooden Khet and The Mother; Andha Yug, which he directed was performed in Berlin and the Festival of India in the USSR. He also produced Jasma Odan at Hawaii University in 1986. Shri Raina has conducted many theatre workshops and acted and directed in a number of feature films including 27 Down, Satah Se Uthta Aadmi, Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, Tamas, Titli, Genesis, Tarang, Ankur Mayna Kabutar etc.


He has been making documentary films for many years. His latest documentary Sacred Dances at Hemis Festiual has been made for Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts.
Cultural activist


Besides being a practicing actor/director in theater and media, he is known also as a cultural activist. Raina believes that culture is a counterpoint to the violence & terrorism around us.


He has received the Sanskriti Samman in 1980, the Sahitya Kala parishad Award in 1981, Best Director of the year by West Bengal Government 1982, the Best Director's award of Punjabi Akademi, Delhi in 1987.


Shri M.K. Raina received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1995  and the Swarna Padak from Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir in 1996 for his contribution to Indian Theater.

He was also awarded one of India's highest theatre awards, the B.V. Karanth award for lifetime achievement in 2007.


Raina's wife is a doctor and also has two children, a son and a daughter.

Thiruvidaimarudur Sambamoorthi Ganapaadigal Balakrishna Sastrigal Mouli, credited as Mouli is an Indian stage and film actor, director and playwright. He is the son of noted Harikatha exponent T. S. Balakrishna Sastrigal. Mouli has stamped his authority on different facets of the film industry viz,. drama, script writing, acting and direction. He has directed films in Tamil and Telugu. A Kalaimamani award winner, his films have won five Nandi Awards including one for best direction in Telugu.

Mouli was interested in acting and played parts in stage plays right from his school days. As a school-going kid, he was fascinated by the plays of T. K. Shanmugam and Singanallur Venkataramana Iyer Sahasranamam, both noted personalities in producing stage plays at that time.

Although he pursued a BTech degree, he said he "could not resist the temptation to write plays". At 19, he wrote a 45-minute play and staged it at a function organised to felicitate actor Sivaji Ganesan for his Padma Shri award. In his college days, he was a part of Y. G. Parthasarathy's United Artists Association. However, Mouli first came into limelight in 1969 when he wrote the screenplay for and acted in the play "Flight No. 172". The play was an enormous success and ran for thirty continuous years.

He then ventured into film direction despite not having worked as assistant director to anybody. In an interview he said "Actually neither acting nor direction was my goal when I got a chance to venture into cinema. I just wanted to be a writer. But when a producer approached me to make one of my plays into a film and offered me direction too, I took it up". His first feature film was Ivargal Vidhyasamaanavargal, which according to himself, "proved commercially viable" but his second film Matravai Neril, which he got to make, even before his first was completed, was his big break. The film made with newcomers, took just 25 days to complete the shoot, and ran for 100 days. He later directed two films under K. Balachander's banner, Anne Anne and Oru Pullanguzhal Adupputhugirathu and wrote the comedy track in Balachander's directorial Nizhal Nijamagiradhu besides acting in it. His film Vaa Indha Pakkam was dubbed in Telugu and introduced Mouli to the Telugu industry. The same producer approached him to do a direct Telugu film. He did not know the language but with the help of popular Telugu writer Jandhyala who translated his script, he made the film Patnam Vachina Pativrathalu with Chiranjeevi and Radhika. The film was a high success, running for 280 days. From then on, he made over 20 Telugu films in the next 15 years.

His celluloid scripts include Kamalhassan's Pammal K. Sambandam, who later made him to direct a film for his own banner Rajjkamal films starring R.Madhavan, Nala Damayanthi in the year 2003.

Three of his popular plays were translated into Telugu and Bengali and were staged by eminent troupes in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal with a record of 4000 stage shows.

He received the Kalaimamani Award for "Best Writer" in 1985 and the Nandi Award for five films. He has acted in more than 100 films in Tamil and Telugu. He has done supporting roles in films like Thiruvilayaadal Aarambam, Pirivom Sandhippom, Irumbukkotai Murattu Singam and Kadhal to Kalyanam