Malashri

Malashri (born Sridurga Pandey), is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Kannada cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Telugu and Tamil language films.

In a career spanning three decades she has appeared in more than 69 films.

She began her career as a child artiste in the 1979 Tamil film Imayam. She made her debut as a adult in the 1989 Kannada-language film Nanjundi Kalyana. In the following years, she established herself as one of Kannada cinema's top heroines.

She had been called, by the media and fans, "Kanasina Rani" She was popular for playing diverse roles in women-centric movies many of which were highly successful at the box-office.

Her debut film Nanjundi Kalyana was a major box office success, which was her breakthrough.

In a talk show, Majaa Talkies, she said that as a child, she was a fan of actor Amitabh Bachchan and would dress up like him, which prompted directors to cast her as a boy, in 1979 films like Imayam and Neela Malargal.

Writer and lyricist Chi. Udaya Shankar introduced Malashri to the Rajkumar family when they were on the lookout for a fresh face opposite their son Raghavendra Rajkumar who was gearing up to make his debut.

Throughout the 90's she starred in several successful films like: Gajapathi Garvabhanga (1989), Policena Hendthi (1990), Kitturina Huli (1990), Rani Maharani (1990), Mruthyunjaya (1990), Hrudaya Haadithu (1991), Ramachaari (1991), Belli Kalungura (1992), Solillada Saradara (1993) and Gadibidi Aliya (1995) establishing herself as one of the top heroines of the Kannada film industry.

She shot to fame with Nanjundi Kalyana in 1989 but her personal life hit an all-time low the same year when her step mother, and grand mother died in a road accident.

She was in a relationship with actor Sunil, her co-star of many films.

Parvathamma Rajkumar decided to cast her in Nanjundi Kalyana (1989) and rechristened her from Durga to Malashri.

Malashri went on to act in two other films with Vajreshwari Combines, Gajapathi Garvabhanga opposite Raghavendra again, and Mruthyunjaya with Shiva Rajkumar.

Between the years 1989-1991, she starred in around 50 films, out of which 35 films were hits and 15 films were average grosses, making her the heroine with the highest hit percentage in the Kannada film industry.

In 1990 Malashri took on the famous double role in Rani Maharani (immortalized by Sridevi in ChaalBaaz) and won a huge fan following with her powerhouse performance.

1990 - Nandi Award for best Supporting Actress - Prema Khaidi

She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in 1991 for her performance as a young woman inflicted with an incurable heart disease in the movie Hrudaya Haadithu.

Her next film Hrudaya Haadithu where she played a young woman inflicted with a heart problem won her acclaim from the masses and critics alike as well as the Filmfare Best Actress award for 1991.

As she churned out hit after hit even the stalwart V. Ravichandran, who till then believed only in importing heroines from other states, cashed in on her popularity by casting her in Ramachaari (a remake of Tamil Hit Chinna Thambi).

The move paid off, enabling him to come out of the financial crisis he faced due to the debacle of Shanti Kranti.

In the later part of the 90s, Malashri had a string of less successful films like Prema Khaidi, Snehada Kadalalli, Megha Mandara, Arishina Kumkuma, and Solillada Saradara.

In 1992, she starred in 19 films, breaking the 24-year-old record of highest releases in Kannada in a lead role in a single year, held by Dr. Rajkumar.

But in 1994 they met with a car accident and while Malashree suffered multiple injuries, Sunil died on the spot.

It was rumoured that they had been planning to get married.

She was married to film producer Ramu in 1997 and they had a daughter and son together, Ananya (b. 2001) and Arjun.

Her sister Subhashri was also an actress, who appeared in South Indian films.

Her husband Ramu died on 26 April 2021 due to Covid.

Malashri began her career as a child artiste and appeared in 35 films in Tamil and Telugu and she played the role of a boy in 26 of them.

She took brief hiatus after marriage and made a comeback in the new millennium with "angry woman" roles in Chamundi (2000), Durgi (2004), Kannadada Kiran Bedi (2009), Shakti (2012), Veera (2013) and Ganga (2015).

In 2015, she won her first Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for her action-oriented role in Ganga. She was considered as Hema Malini of Kannada cinema by Dr. Rajakumar.

Malashri was born and brought up in Madras (Chennai) to a Telugu-speaking mother, Chandralekha, and a Punjabi-speaking father, Pandey.

Her mother tongues are Telugu, Punjabi, and Hindi.