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Upendra (popularly also called Uppi), is a Kannada film actor, director, screen writer, lyricist and singer. Born in a middle class family at Koteshwara near Kundapura, he belongs to the Tulu speaking Koteshwara Magane Kota Brahmin community. Upendra started his career under the director Kashinath as a writer and an assistant director. His first directorial venture was Tharle Nan Maga.

In the late 90s he directed Om, which portrayed actual Bangalore gangsters, followed by A, in which he appeared as Surya. Upendra, his next film, starred Raveena Tandon, a Bollywood actress. After a decade of acting in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil films, he returned to the role of director with the multi-lingual movie Super, which was well-received critically and commercially.

Career as a director

• Upendra explains that he always views his movies as a normal audience and not as a director, so he wants his movies to be filled with suspense and surprises, where a thought of "What's next??" should be in the minds of audiences till the end of the movie. Also he doesn't want his movies to be categorized like Action or Drama or Comedy etc. Most of the times Upendra tries to keep under wrap, the plot or subject of his movie before its release, as he wants the audiences to see everything on the screen. Even with the titles of his movies, Upendra is cautious enough to choose names which are completely appropriate to the movie but does not disclose anything about the movie before watching the film. He has managed to give some movies whose titles are very different from normal ones. Shhh!, A, Swasthik (Hakenkreuz symbol), H2O (Chemical compound formula of water), Super (Vitarka mudra hand symbol) are a few to name.

• Usually Upendra's movies contain dialogues which are strong and humorous. His movies like A, Upendra, Rakta Kanneeru, Omkara, Auto Shankar, Buddhivantha and Super contain dialogues written by Upendra himself.

• Tharle Nan Maga was his maiden venture as a director. This film was Jaggesh's first movie as a lead actor and was a commercial success.

• His second movie was Shhh! with Kumar Govind in the lead. This horror-suspense thriller also starred Kashinath and introduced Kumar Govind as mainstream hero.

• His next directorial venture Om was a movie starring Shivrajkumar and Prema. This story explored and exposed Bangalore's mafia scene. The movie was controversial because of presence of numerous famous real-life rowdy sheeters (underworld gang members). It had a very good soundtrack with numbers like "Hey Dinakara", and "College Kumaru" etc., scored by Hamsalekha. The film went on to gain recognition in the National arena.

• His next was Operation Antha, a sequel to the 1982 movie Antha, which starred Ambareesh in lead. This movie carried a strong feeling against corruption, where the protagonist is obsessed by the corrupt world and finds a way to change the system through extremist way. The movie also made some controversies because of its taunts on some real life political figures.

• In his next directional movie A, he played the lead role for the first time. It was a psychological love story, with finely framed story from Upendra's real life thoughts about Love. It was basically a debate whether true love exists in this world or not. It was presented with an out of the box narration, strong dialogues, beautiful soundtrack numbers like Sum Sumne, Mari kannu, Idu one day matchu etc. and outstanding performances by both lead actors, despite being their first movie. This movie became a blockbuster in the Kannada film industry and was even received very well by non-Kannada speaking audiences and it also marked the dubut of star music director Guru Kiran. Later it was dubbed to Telugu and was remade in Tamil.

• His next movie was Swasthik(symbol) with lead Raghavendra Rajkumar which hit the screens in 1999. Taking a plot with terrorism as its core, it narrates the story of an Indian raised by Pakistani parents living in India, who are later revealed to be terrorists. It was not received as well as his other movies, but it is remembered for its smart narration and innovative screenplay. The soundtrack number Idu Yelelu Janumada love became a hit.

• His next film was named after himself as Upendra which again starred himself in the lead and also starred the Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon. The film was a psychological drama which explored human emotions. The film is a story of a commoner and his three emotions, which is metaphorically narrated through the story of the characters played by Upendra and the three heroines. The movie went on to become a much bigger hit than his previous film A. The movie was also dubbed into Telugu. A Japanese national who saw the film in Bangalore was impressed by it, finding it similar to the story of Buddha, and got it released in Japan.

• Upendra came back as a director after 10 years in 2010 with the movie Super. The movie was released in 42 theatres in Bengaluru and 150 theatres all over Karnataka and was also dubbed into Telugu and released in 95 theatres across Andhara Pradesh, a total of 250 theatres. It tells the story of a NRI who, through political manipulations, helps India become a superpower in 2030. The film broke all records when it was released and went on to become the biggest hit of 2010 and also became Upendra's biggest blockbuster.

• In January 2012 Upendra (@realupendra) had tweeted that he is planning to do a sequel to his 1999 blockbuster movie Upendra. He has confirmed this recently in an interview with oneindia that he might take up the project this year.

Career as an actor

As an actor, he acted in many commercially successful films. A, Upendra, Rakta Kanneeru, Buddhivantha and Super are his biggest commercial blockbusters. His other Super Hit films include Preethse, Kutumba, Gokarna, Gowramma, Auto Shankar, Aishwarya, Anatharu, Katari Veera Surasundarangi. Films like H2O which was a metaphorical representation of the century old Kaveri River Water Dispute, Superstar, Hollywood, Omkara, Arakshaka were also moderately successful at the box office. His straight Telugu films like Kanyadaanam & Raa were also successful at the box office. For his performance in his first movie itself (A), Upendra won the Udaya Film Award for Best Male Actor. Through his hard hitting unique dilogue delivery in movies like A, Upendra, Kutumba, Rakta Kanneeru, Omkara, Auto Shankar, Buddhivantha, Super, etc Upendra has scored a huge fan following.

In contrast to the many Indian movies where the hero usually has a stereotypical 'good-boy' character, Upendra's roles have both negative and positive aspects. His character in the film A had many negative shades such as hatred towards women. In the film Raa(2001), Upendra plays a playboy who seduces girls into his bed and leave them frustrated by doing nothing. In the film Upendra, he plays one such character who is initially the protagonist but later transforms into the antagonist of the film. In the films Preethse and Nagarahaavu, he stops at nothing to achieve his goal and goes on committing series of murders. His character in Rakta Kanneeru was extremely egoistic with many negative shades. In the film Omkara, Upendra plays an underworld gangster. In the film Buddhivantha he plays a most wanted conman who marries four women one after another to rob them of their wealth. Thus Upendra has proved that a hero can have both positive and negative aspects.

Upendra has acted with several Bollywood actresses like Raveena Tandon in the film Upendra, Sonali Bendre in the film Preethse, Jyothika in Nagarahavu, Preeti Jhangiani in the film Omkara, Shilpa Shetty in the film Auto Shankar, Deepika Padukone in the film Aishwarya (her debut film), and Celina Jaitley in the film Shrimathi.

Personal life

On Dec 14 2003, Uppi married former Miss Kolkata Priyanka Trivedi who met him first on the sets of the Telugu movie Raa and then on the sets of H2O. Upendra and his wife reside in Banashankari III Stage in Bangalore with their two children.

Other projects

In 2004, Upendra ventured into advertising through his own startup agency 'UppiAds'. Upendra has been associated with UB Export since 1999, and his iconic punch line ‘Yella Ok. Cool drink yaake?’ as part of the United Breweries ad campaign is still memorable to the people of Karnataka a decade later. Upendra also endorsed Lunars Footwear and the Emani Navaratna Brand.

Upendra is also a lyricist. Many of his songs contain normal slang, which is contrary to the popular practice, where only textual words are used in songs. Some of his popular tracks appear in films, including MTV subbulaxmi ge (Upendra), Dil ilde (H2O), Chitranna chitrana (Buddhivantha), and Thu nan makla (Aarakshaka).

Filmography

As director

As actor

Other awards

• Suvarna Film Awards 2008 - Special Award for Performance - Anatharu
• South Indian International Movie Awards - Special Appreciation Award

References

1. Excited Upendra on Tamil Film 'Sathyam'
2. Upendra Kannada Film Super Box Office Report, Collections
3. ^ TV9 - "Director Special" With Real Star Upendra - Full - YouTube
4. Screenplay stands out as a winner in Arakshaka: Upendra
5. "The 'Super' man in your neighborhood - Upendra". The Hindu.
6. "Upendra & Priyanka - When two cultures merge".
7. "Upendra-UB Export celebrate a decade long association".
8. "Emani endorsements".
9. "Upendra Magic Chalegakya - 'Super' On Friday!".
10. "Super Collects more than Rs 30 Crore in fifth week".
11. "Upendra's 'Super' tops State Awards". Deccan Herald.
12. ^ "He's 'different'".
13. "Kannada Blockbuster Preethse - Mindless Entertainment!".
14. "Producer of 'Raa' Nallamalupu Bujji Interview".
15. "Upendra explains that H2O completed 75 days of run and was a moderate success".
16. "Is Endhiran inspired by Uppi's Hollywood ?".
17. "Kutumba marks successful 125 days".
18. "2003 - yearly roundup of kannada films".
19. "Rakshita explains 'Gokarna' was a good money spinner at the box office".
20. "Upendra's Om was a Super Hit, Omkara a Decent Hit; Now teams up with Om Prakash Rao".
21. "Namma Basava & Auto Shankar hit the 100 days mark".
22. "Upendra-Deepika Padukone starrer 'Aishwarya' among the Hit Kannada films of 2006".
23. "Kannada films of 2007 - Roundup".
24. "Upendra's 'Buddhivantha' - The Top Grosser of 2008".
25. "Anna Bond and Katari Veera - Biggest Hits of 2012 so far".
26. "Godfather audio release: AR Rahman honoured".
27. "Upendra-Om Prakash Rao team up for Trivikrama".

External links

• Upendra at IMDb

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• Indian film directors
• Kannada people
• People from Karnataka
• Kannada film directors
• Indian actors
• Kannada film actors
• Living people
• Kannada playback singers
• People from Udupi
• 1967 births
• Filmfare Awards South winners