Sundar Rao Nadkarni was an Indian film actor, editor, cinematographer, producer and director. He was the director of the first hit film for AVM productions
Bhookails in Telugu in the year 1940, and later the record-creating Tamil film ''
Haridas''.
Early life
Sundar Rao Nadkarni was born in
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...
in a
Konkani speaking family.
He started his career in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
as an actor in silent films produced by Surya Films. Later, he moved to
Bombay
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- ...
where he took to film direction and editing. Nadkarni caught the eye of film producer
Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar who, after the success of ''
Sabhapathy'', was looking to make another comedy film. Thereon, he moved to Coimbatore and finally Madras, where he settled down permanently.
In 1942, Nadkarni directed the Tamil film ''
En Manaivi'' which was a hit. Following this success, Nadkarni also made other successful Tamil films. But his greatest hit was the 1944 film ''Haridas'' which set a record by becoming the first Tamil film to run for 110 weeks at a single theatre. He directed all the top Tamil actors during his active years, notably M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and T. R. Rajakumari in ''Haridas'' (1944), Narsimha Bharathi in ''Krishna Vijayam'' (1950), and MGR and Savitri in ''Mahadevi'' (1957).
Filmography
As director
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadkarni, Sundar Rao
Tamil film directors
Mangaloreans
Year of birth missing
Konkani people
Indian silent film directors
20th-century Indian film directors
Telugu film directors
Kannada film directors