Radha (actress)

Radha
Born	Udaya Chandrika October 3, 1965 (1965-10-03) Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Years active	1981 - 1991
Spouse	Rajasekaran Nair
Children	Karthika Nair, Vignesh, Thulasi
Awards	Kalaimaamani, Cinema express, film critics

Udaya Chandrika, better known by her screen name Radha (Malayalam: രാധ; born 3 October 1965) is an Indian actress popular in the 80s and early 90s. She has acted in numerous movies with top actors of the South Indian cinema such as Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sathyaraj, Prabhu, Vijayakanth, Chiranjeevi, Karthik, Suresh, Mohan, Mohanlal, Krishna and Venkatesh. She has acted in over 200 movies in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.

Personal life

Radha hails from Kallara in Thiruvananthapuram District in Kerala. Radha Nair and her husband R.S Nair, son Vignesh Nair, daughters Thulasi Nair and daughter Karthika Nair have settled in Mumbai. For the past 20 years they have owned a chain of restaurants in Mumbai and two hotels called UDS in Kovalam at Kerala (www.uds.co.in), which have won the best coastal beach resort award, they also own a restaurant in the UK named "Rock and Role Kitchen"(RRK). Her sister Ambika is also an actress. Her daughter Karthika Nair started her career as an actress with the Telugu film Josh and went on to do Makaramanju and Ko.

Career

Radha was spotted by director Bharathiraja and was cast as a teenager in Alaigal Oivathillai in 1981 opposite then newcomer Karthik.

Tamil cinema

Radha started her career with Bharathiraja's 'Alaigal Ooivathilai'. Gopurangal Saivathillai proved her acting talents. She played a powerful role as a second wife of Mohan and matched the national award winner Suhasini (who played the first wife) in this movie. Radha played a small role in Tik Tik Tik, a Kamal Haasan starrer. Tik Tik Tik played a significant role in her career. She then starred in a number of Kamal Hassan movies like Oru Kaithiyin Diary, Thoongathey Thambi Thoongathey, Kathal Parisu and Jappanil Kalyanaraman. Her close friend and mentor, actress Suhasini Maniratnam helped her in improving her make-up and took special care by voluntarily opting to hairdress Radha whenever they acted together.

Her major break came from her mentor Bharathiraja. Radha was cast a movie opposite Sivaji Ganesan. Muthal Mariyathai released in the year 1985. After Muthal Mariyathai, she got a number of challenging roles including in movies like Nyaya Tharasu.

Her sister Ambika is also a very popular actress. They acted together in films like Enkeyo Ketta Kural, Kadhal Parisu, Anna Nagar Mudhal Theru, Idhaya Kovil and Vellai Roja.

The two sisters were at the zenith of their beauty and fame when they acted in Kadhal Parisu. They put up electrifying performances that easily overshadowed even Kamal Hasan, the senior actor paired opposite to them. Ambika and Radha managed their careers very carefully, seldom directly competing in the same turf. They both used the Tamil movie industry to launch their careers, but spent only a minority of time in Tamil once their success & fame spread across the South. Ambika acted in more Kannada and Malayalam movies, quickly getting to the top-2 spots in both markets. Radha conquered the undisputed top spot in Telugu movies for almost 5 years consecutively between 1984 and 1989. Ambika and Radha were both very selective about taking up roles in Tamil movies once they became successful, rejecting many offers and only pairing with the top actors and directors of the time. It was very rare to see both the sisters in the same movie after their early years in Tamil. So it was indeed a dream come true for fans when Kadhal Parisu hit the screens, especially since both sisters played the roles of very glamorous and highly desirable women in the movie.

Telugu cinema

She acted in her first Telugu film with Sobhan Babu in Mr.Vijay. Her notable films in Telugu include Yamudiki Mogudu and State Rowdy. She is well known for her dance alongside Chiranjeevi. Chiranjeevi agreed that Radha has been his best co-actor to dance with. She has acted in around 20 films with Chiranjeevi.

Kannada cinema

Radha has also done quite a number of Kannada films. She acted with veteran Vishnuvardhan and actress Lakshmi in Soubhagya Lakshmi, a remake of the Hindi film Maang Bharo Sajana. This film in turn is a remake of a Telugu movie. She has also done films with Ravichandran. In 1991, she did a Kannada movie Ranachandi with co-actors Sharat Babu, Ramesh Bhat, Mukhyamantri Chandru and Sudhir. In the film, she played a cop with Sharat Babu as her husband and Mukhyamantri Chandru as the villain. She had many stunts and fight sequences in the film. It was a big hit in Kannada & is still remembered by Kannada movie goers.

Malayalam cinema

Radha acted only in a few Malayalam films, the most notable being K. G. George's state award winning film Irakal (1986). Her performance as Nirmala in this film is widely regarded as one of the best in her career. She produced the Malayalam film Ayitham (1987) in which she enacted the lead role. She also played significant roles in Sathyan Anthikad's Revathikkoru Pavakkutty (1986) and P. G. Viswambaran's Innathe Programme (1991).

Selected filmography

Telugu films

Year	Film	Co-stars	Direction	Notes
1990	Kodama Simham	Chiranjeevi, Sonam, Mohan babu	K.Muralimohana Rao
	Kondaveeti Donga	Chiranjeevi, Vijayashanti, Amrish Puri	Kondanda Rami Reddy.A.	Srikanya
	Qaidi Dada	Brahmanandam, Suman	T.L.V.Prasad
1989	Lankeshwarudu	Chiranjeevi, Mohan babu	Narayana Rao Dasari
	Rudranetra	Chiranjeevi, Nutan Prasad	K.Raghavendra Rao
	State Rowdy	Chiranjeevi, Banupriya, Satyanarayana Kaikala	Gopal.B.
	Ramudu Bhimudu	BalaKrishna
	Manchi Kutumbam	Krishna Ghattamaneni, Sharada	G.Rammohan Rao
	Two Town Rowdy	Venkatesh, Naresh	Narayana Rao Dasari
1988	Marana Mrudangam	Chiranjeevi, Annapoorna, Brahmanandam	A.Kondandarami Reddy
	Yamudiki Mogudu	Chiranjeevi, Vijayasanthi, Sathyanarayana Kaikala	Ravi Raja Pinisetty
	Donga Ramudu	Mohan babu, Allu Ramalingaiah	K.Raghavendra Rao
	Jamadagni	Krishna	Bharathiraja
1987	Jebu Donga	Chiranjeevi, Bhanupriya	A.Kondandarami Reddy
1986	Raakshasudu	Chiranjeevi, Annapoorna, Nagendra Babu	Kondanadarama Reddy.A.
	Kondaveeti Raja	Chiranjeevi, Sathyanarayana Kaikala	K.Raghavendra Rao
	Muddula Krishnaiah	Balakrishna, Vijayasanthi, Sharada	Kodi Ramakrishna
	Ravana Brahma	Krishnamraju, Sathyanarayana Kaikala	K.Raghavendra Rao
1985	Adavi Donga	Chiranjeevi, Sharada	K.Raghavendra Rao
	Raktha Sindooram	Chiranjeevi, Nuthan Prasad	Kondaandarama Reddy.A.
	Puli	Chiranjeevi, Sathyanarayana Kaikala	Raj Bharath
	Vinitha Mogudu	Mohan babu	T.L.VPrasad
	Donga	Chiranjeevi, Sathyanarayana Kaikala	Kondanadarama Reddy.A.
	Agni Parvatam	Krishna, Sharada, Vijayashanti	K.Raghavendra Rao
1984	Naagu	Chiranjeevi, Raogopal Rao	Prasad Thathineni
	Goonda	Chiranjeevi, Sathyanarayana Kaikala	Kondanadarama Reddy.A.
1983	Chanda Sasanudu	N.T.Ramarao, Sharada	N.T.Ramarao

Tamil films

Year	Film	Co-stars	Direction	Role
1990	Sigaram	S.P.Balasubrahmanyam
	Manaivi Oru Manickam	Arjun
1989	Rajadhi Raja	Rajinikanth, Nadiya Moidu	R.Sundarajan
1987	Aanand	Prabhu	C.V.Rajendran
	Jallikkattu	Sivaji Ganesan, Sathyaraj
	Kadhal Parisu	Kamal Haasan, Ambika	A.Jagannathan
	Ninaive Oru Sangeetham	Vijaykanth
1986	Raatshashan	Chiranjeevi, Annapoorna, Nagendra Babu	Kondanadarama Reddy.A.
	Manithanin Marupakkam	Sivakumar, Radha
	Amman Kovil Kizhakale	Vijayakanth	R.Sundarajan
	Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu	Amala, Mohan	R.Sundarajan
1985	Idaya Kovil	Mohan, Ambika	Mani Ratnam
	Muthal Mariyathai	Sivaji Ganesan, Sathyaraj	Bharathi Raja
	Nalla Thambi	Karthik	Sp.Muthuraman
1984	Naan Mahaan Alla	Rajinikanth
	Oru Kaidhiyin Diary	Kamal Haasan, Revathy	Bharahti Raja
1983	Paayum Puli	Rajinikanth, Manorama	Sp.Muthuraman
	Sivappu Sooriyan	Rajinikanth, Manorama, Saritha	V.Srinivasan
	Thoongathey Thambi Thoogathey	Kamal Haasan	Sp.Muthuraman
1982	Enkeyo Ketta Kural	Rajinikanth, Ambika	Sp.Muthuraman
	Kathal Oviyam	Kannan	Bharathi Raja
	Gopurngal Sayvathillai	Suhasini, Mohan	Manivannan
	Ilanjodigal	Karthik Muthuraman	Ramanarayan
	Kanney Raadha	Karthik Muthuraman
	Valibamey Vaa Vaa	Karthik Muthuraman	Bharathi Raja
1981	Alaigal Oivathillai	Karthik Muthuraman	Bharathi Raja
	Tik Tik Tik	Kamal Haasan, Madhavi	Bharathi Raja

Malayalam films

Year	Film	Co-stars	Direction	Role
1991	Innathe Programme	Mukesh, Siddique, Zainuddin	P. G. Viswambaran	Indumathi
1987	Ayitham	Mohanlal, Ambika	Venu Nagavally
1986	Irakal	Bharath Gopi, Ashokan	K. G. George	Nirmala
	Revathikkoru Pavakkutty	Bharath Gopi, Mohanlal, Menaka	Sathyan Anthikkad	Susanna
1983	Mortuary	Prem Nazir, Madhu, Srividya	Baby	Radhadevi

Hindi films

Year	Film	Co-stars	Direction	Role
1995	Bewafa Sanam	Krishnakumar, Shilpa Shirodkar	Gulshan Kumar
1989	Trinetra	Chiranjeevi, Brahmanandam, Nuthan Prasad	K.Raghavendra Rao
	Vicky Dada	Nagarjuna, Juhi Chawla, Srividhya	A.Kondandarami Reddy	Savitri
1986	Phool Aur Patthar	Meena Kumari, Dharmendra	O.P.Ralhan	Radhadevi
1983	Faoladi Mukka	Rajinikanth, Manorama	Sp.Muthuraman

External links

• Radha at the Internet Movie Database