Prakash Raj was born on 26 March 1965 in Bangalore on 26 March 1965 to a Tulu father and a Kannada mother. He is a complete Indian actor who contributed to the film industry as film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several accolades, including five National Film Awards, eight Nandi Awards, eight Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, five Filmfare Awards South, four SIIMA Awards, three CineMAA Awards, and three Vijay Awards. Apart from his mother tongue Kannada, Raj's fluency in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, English, and Marathi has placed him among the most sought after actors in Indian cinema.
After working in stage shows and television in Kannada for a few years, Prakash ventured into films. He completed schooling at Saint Joseph's Indian High School and joined Saint Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore. Prakash Raj acted in back-to-back
stage shows for ₹300 a month in the initial stages of his career, when he joined Kalakshetra, Bengaluru, and he has 2,000 street theatre performances to his credit. Prakash began his television career with Doordarshan serials such as Bisilu Kudure and Guddada Bhootha in Tulu and Kannada. He later took up supporting roles in Kannada films such as Ramachari, Ranadheera, Nishkarsha and Lockup Death. Actress Geetha introduced Prakash Raj to prominent Tamil film director K Balachander. He made his debut in Tamil cinema through Duet in 1994, directed by the famous director K Balachander, and has since been a commercially successful film star in Tamil. In remembrance, he named his production company Duet Movies.
He played a variety of roles, most notably as the antagonist and, of late, as a character actor. Prakash, as an actor has won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for Mani Ratnam's Iruvar, a National Film Award – Special Mention for the Telugu film Antahpuram, directed by Krishna Vamsi in 1998 and a National Film Award for Best Actor in 2007 for his role in Kanchivaram, a Tamil film directed by Priyadarshan.
As a producer, he has won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada for Puttakkana Highway, directed by his long-time theatre friend B. Suresha in 2011. Prakash was also the host of Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi during the show's second season.
He acted in many Telugu films, including Antahpuram (1998), which earned him a National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention. He played an important role in Venkat Prabhu's Saroja. Prakash Raj also acted in a 2004-released multi starrer hit film Khakee along with Amithabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar & Tushar Kapoor, playing Assistant Commissioner of Police Shrikant Naidu, Angre's main mole in the police force. Since Wanted (2009), Prakash Raj has been a regular villain in Hindi language Bollywood movies, including Singham, Dabangg 2, Mumbai Mirror and Policegiri.
He acted with actor Kamal Haasan in Vasool Raja MBBS, which was a critical and commercial success. Then, he paired again with Kamal Haasan in Thoongaa Vanam in 2015. He acted in the Telugu movie Bharat Ane Nenu in 2018. He was recently seen in the hit film Major, which is directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka, story of Major Saneep Unnikrishnan.
Prakash took on the mantle of director with Naanu Nanna Kanasu, in Kannada in 2010, for which he was the joint producer. He was nominated for the Filmfare South "Best Director" category for his first film.
He then directed the Telugu and Tamil bilingual film Dhoni with director Puri Jagannath's son and Kannada telugu bilingual Ulavacharu Biryani. Prakash became a film producer beginning with the Tamil film Dhaya in 2002, with actress Meena. It earned him a Special Jury National Award for his performance. He later produced films in Tamil such as Naam, Azhagiya Theeye, Kanda Naal Mudhal, Poi , Mozhi, Velli Thirai and Abhiyum Naanum, which won many Tamil Nadu State Awards in 2008, and Inidhu Inidhu in 2010. Prakash Raj adopted the villages of Kondareddypalle in Mahabubnagar District, Telangana state and Bandlarahatti in Chitradurga district, Karnataka state.
Prakash Raj started his active political movement with the hashtag justasking on social media after his friend Gauri Lankesh's assassination incident in September 2017. He contested in the 2019 Indian general election as an independent candidate for the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency. Raj lost the election.
