Anuradha (born 4 March 1965), known by her stage name Tara, is an Indian actress, television personality and a politician. She is known for her work predominantly in Kannada language films in addition to a few Telugu and Tamil films. She has appeared in over 250 films and has won a National Film Award for Best Actress, three Karnataka State Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards South in her career spanning over 40 years.
Tara made her debut in 1984 with the Tamil film Ingeyum Oru Gangai. Her Kannada film debut came in 1985 with Thulasidala. Some of her most notable films in Kannada include Krama (1991), Munjaneya Manju (1993), Kanooru Heggadithi (1999), Munnudi (2000), Mathadana (2001), Hasina (2005), Cyanide (2006) and Ee Bandhana (2007), Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014). Even though she started off in the lead role, most part of her film career has been in playing the second lead and supporting roles during the 1980s and the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s she began to take up author backed roles which earned her critical acclaim and several awards and laurels including the National Film Award for the film Hasina. She has been among the judge panel in television reality shows such as Raja Rani (2021) and Nannamma Super Star (2021–22).
She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2009 and is currently a nominated member of the Karnataka Legislative Council. After joining BJP, she was elected as the president of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy in 2012 and held the position for a year. In the same year, she was nominated as a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, the upper house of the legislature of Karnataka.
Contents
Career
Anuradha was first noticed by director Venagal Jagannath Rao during her ballad performance in school, and offered her a role in his 1985 film, Thulasidala, which she appeared in. Following this, she was signed in the Tamil film, Manivannan's Ingeyum Oru Gangai (1984) opposite Murali, where she was first credited as Tara. It became her first theatrical release. Tara got her break in Dr. Rajkumar starrer Guri (1986) and thereafter acted in several movies as a leading lady and supporting actress.
Tara has worked with almost all leading Kannada heroes of the 1980s and 1990s including Rajkumar, Shankar Nag, Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Ananth Nag, Ravichandran, Shashikumar, Tiger Prabhakar, Shivarajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar, Murali, Karthik, Sunil and Devaraj.
Her performance in Girish Karnad's Kanooru Heggadithi brought her widespread recognition. She received her first award as best actress for the Kannada movie Krama (1991), directed by debutant director Asrar Abid. In the late 1980s, she appeared as a supporting actress in Mani Ratnam's Tamil films, Nayakan and Agni Natchathiram. Her performance in Girish Karnad's Kanooru Heggadithi brought her widespread recognition for which she also received her second "best actress" state award. She received the "best supporting actress" award for Munjaneya Manju. She received wide critical acclaim for the female centric Munnudi which received multiple National Film Awards, including Best Film on Other Social Issues.
In 2005, she was cast by Girish Kasaravalli in Hasina, for which she won the National Award. Subsequently, her role in Deadly Soma was appreciated. Then came another breakthrough performance in Cyanide (2006), for which she received her third Best Actress award at the Karnataka State Film Awards. She portrayed a "traumatic" Mridula, the wife of Rangayana Raghu's Raghunath, who provide shelter to the plotters of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
Beside acting, Tara produced Hasina, and announced her intention to direct films as well. In the social drama Hebbet Ramakka (2018), Tara played an illiterate yet forthright villager whose world revolved around tending to her farmland, caring for her livestock, and raising her two school-going children. Her performance won her the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for the fourth time.
Personal life
Tara married cinematographer H. C. Venugopal in 2005. They have a son (b. 2013).