Rajshri Ponnappa is an Indian actress who has predominantly appeared in South Indian films. She made her

Malayalam Cinema Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ''Elippathayam' ...

debut in, ''

Aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

'' in 2013. She gained acclaim for being the only South Indian actress to be featured on Outlook Magazine's cover. In addition to acting in movies, Rajshri has launched her own production house to produce regional cinema and has won acclaim as a theatre actress.

Early life

Rajshri was born in

Coorg Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

, Karnataka to MM Ponnappa, businessman, and Jyothi MP, . She is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. The eldest of three children, Rajshri has a younger brother and sister who are twins. She completed her schooling from Clarence High School, JP Nagar, Bangalore and went on to study in

Jyoti Nivas College Jyoti Nivas College is an autonomous college institute for women, situated at Koramangala, Bangalore, India. It was established in 1966 and founded by The Sisters of St. Joseph of Tarbes. It is affiliated to Bengaluru City University. History Si ...

, Bangalore completing her graduation in Bachelors of Mass Communication. During her time in college, she was an all-rounder. She also completed her honors programme in Human Resource Management from St. Joseph's College, Bangalore. It was during this time that she started doing voice-overs for Radio Mirchi and was also an outdoor broadcasting radio-jockey for Radio One. As a college student, she studied film-making and participated in the making of 3 documentaries, out of which one was made on traffic awareness and was screened by the

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

city traffic police.

Career

She rose to prominence when she became the face of Zee Kannada after winning multiple reality TV shows and soon after, she was offered her first movie ''Pithavinum Puthranam Parishudhatmvinum''. The film did not release due to religious conflicts but earned her enough fame and popularity to be featured on the cover page of Outlook National Magazine, after which she was offered various films. She made an impact with a pivotal role in film ''

Vasundhara Vasundhara Kashyap is an Indian actress and model in Tamil language films. Career Vasundhara was born to a Tamil father and a Maharashtriann mother. She first appeared in the 2006 Tamil film, ''Vattaram'' and later starred in films includi ...

'' which was directed by National Award Winner

T. S. Nagabharana Talakadu Srinivasaiah Nagabharana (born 23 January 1953), commonly known as T. S. Nagabharana, is an Indian film director, in the Kannada film industry and a pioneer of parallel cinema. He is one of the few film directors to have straddled t ...

.This was followed by a role in ''

Rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

'' with

Sathish Ninasam Shiva, known by his screen name Sathish Ninasam, is an Indian actor who appears in Kannada films. Having made his film debut with ''Madesha'' (2008), Sathish appeared in small but significant roles in films like ''Manasaare'' (2009), ''Panchar ...

and

Achyuth Kumar Achyuth Kumar is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Kannada cinema. Born in the town of Belur, in the district of Hassan and brought up in Tiptur. He graduated in bachelor of commerce from the Kalpatharu First Grade College, which was t ...

. She made her Telugu Film debut with

Srikanth Srikanth or Sreekanth is a common Indian first name. * Srikanth (Tamil actor, born 1940), Tamil film actor active in films from 1965 * Srikanth (Tamil actor, born 1980), Tamil actor active in films after 2002 * Srikanth (Telugu actor), Telugu acto ...

in Mental Police and won audience acclaim. In 2017, she acted alongside B. C. Patil, Saikumar,

Vijaya Raghavendra Vijay Raghavendra is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Kannada films. Referred to popularly as "Chinnari Mutha", Vijay is the son of producer S. A. Chinne Gowda and nephew of actor Dr.Rajkumar. Vijay started his career as a child ar ...

, Diganth, Dhananjay,

Sudharani Jayashree, known by her screen name Sudha Rani, is an Indian actress, voice artist and a former model. She has primarily worked in Kannada films.she also acted in a few Telugu, Tulu and Malayalam films. At the age of three, Rani was chosen as ...

Shruthi Hariharan Sruthi Hariharan (born 2 February 1989) is an Indian actress and producer who appears primarily in Kannada language films. She debuted in a 2012 Malayalam film, ''Cinema Company'', and her first film in the Kannada cinema industry was '' Lucia' ...

, Sonu Gowda, Margarita and Srushti Patil in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

anthology drama –

Happy New Year The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...

which was directed by

Pannaga Bharana Pannaga Bharana is an Indian film director and actor who works in Kannada cinema Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada languag ...

. While working with

T.S. Nagabharana Talakadu Srinivasaiah Nagabharana (born 23 January 1953), commonly known as T. S. Nagabharana, is an Indian film director, in the Kannada film industry and a pioneer of parallel cinema. He is one of the few film directors to have straddled th ...

, Rajshri was introduced to Theatre and soon after, shifted to Mumbai to pursue it. She made her theatre debut with Surnai Theatre and Folk Arts Foundation's Namaste which is an adaptation by Ila Arun of Tom Dudzick's popular play GREETINGS! (1990) and is directed by K.K. Raina. The play has been received well by audiences and has been performed in multiple cities across India including

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

and the iconic

Prithvi Theatre Prithvi Theatre is one of Mumbai's best known theatres. It was built by Shashi Kapoor and his wife Jennifer Kapoor in memory of Prithviraj Kapoor, Shashi's father, who had dreamt of having a "home" for his repertory theatre company, Prithvi Th ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. She has appeared in advertisements for leading brands such as

Kalyan Jewellers Kalyan Jewellers is an Indian chain of jewellery showrooms. The company open its initial public offering on March 16, 2021, and was publicly listed on March 26, 2021. History Kalyan Jewellers was founded by T. S. Kalyanaraman, who opened t ...

(with Shiva RajKumar),

Nature's Basket Nature's Basket is an Indian grocery delivery chain of retail stores focused in gourmet food. It has a range of organic food, imported ingredients and exotic foods. The company is headquartered in Mumbai, India and has multiple stores in ci ...

and Lipton Tea. She has also co-produced

Namo Bhootatma ''Namo Bhootatma'' is a 2014 Kannada horror comedy film directed by Murali in his debut. The film was a remake of the 2014 Tamil film ''Yaamirukka Bayamey'', which itself was based on the Korean movie '' The Quiet Family''. It stars Komal Kumar, ...

, a

horror comedy film directed by Murali, it is a remake of the 2014 Tamil film

Yaamirukka Bayamey ''Yaamirukka Bayamey'' () is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language horror comedy film written and directed by debutant Deekay and produced by Elred Kumar. The cast includes Kreshna, Oviya, Rupa Manjari, Karunakaran, and Anaswara Kumar. 15 technicians we ...

(which itself was based on the Korean movie

The Quiet Family ''The Quiet Family'' () is a 1998 South Korean black comedy horror film directed by Kim Jee-woon. The story centers on a family who owns a hunting lodge in a remote area, whose customers always happen to end up dying. Among the film's main cast ar ...

)

Philanthropy

She participated in the Vanity Trunk Sale, Bangalore along with

Kavya Shetty Kavya Shetty is an Indian actress and model who primarily appears in Kannada films. She made her acting debut in 2013 with the Kannada film '' Nam Duniya Nam Style'' directed by Preetham Gubbi. Early life Shetty was born Mangalore, Karnataka ...

Manvitha Harish Manvita Kamath is an Indian actress who works in Kannada cinema. She started her career as a Radio Jockey in Radio Mirchi and made a switch to acting through the Kannada film ''Kendasampige'' (2015) directed by Duniya Soori. Early life Manvit ...

, Meghna Gaonkar, Meghana Raj, Neetu Shetty and other actresses from the South film industry – a cause which had them donating clothes and accessories from their personal wardrobe. The proceeds of which went to her mother's charitable organization JP Foundation and Aadya Foundation.''The Vanity Trunk Sale''
/ref>

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponnappa, Rajshri Living people People from Kodagu district Indian film actresses Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Year of birth missing (living people) Actresses from Bangalore 21st-century Indian actresses