Veteran Kannada actor 'Kalatapasvi' Rajesh dies at 89
Zee News
Rajesh had acted in more than 150 movies. His autobiography, ‘Kala Thapasvi Rajesh Atmakathe’, came out in 2014.
Bengaluru: Veteran Kannada actor Rajesh, known as ‘Kala Thapasvi’, passed away at the age of 89 in a private hospital in the wee hours of Saturday (February 19). He was admitted to hospital a week ago. In his career spanning more than four decades, Rajesh had acted in more than 150 movies. His autobiography, ‘Kala Thapasvi Rajesh Atmakathe’, came out in 2014.
His daughter Asha Rani is the wife of the multi-lingual south actor Arjun Sarja.
Rajesh was born as Munichowdappa in Bengaluru in 1935. He developed an interest in theatre in his childhood and joined Sudarshana Nataka Mandali without the knowledge of his parents.
On the pretext of going for tuitions, Rajesh, identifying himself as Vidyasagar, got involved himself with the theatre group. He started working as a typist in a government office and went on to start his own theatre group called Shakthi Nataka Mandali.
His theatre experiments led him to films and he made his silver screen debut with `Veera Sankalpa`. His was renamed Rajesh when he was cast as the solo hero in `Namma Ooru`, which went on to become a superhit in 1968.
