Anu Prabhakar

Anu was born in Bangalore to M. V. Prabhakar, an employee with Bharat Heavy Electricals, and dubbing artiste and actress Gayathri Prabhakar. Anu grew up in the Malleswaram suburb of Bangalore, and studied in the Nirmala Rani High School. She appeared as a child artiste in Kannada films Chapala Chennigaraya (1990) and Shanti Kranti (1991), and English film Mysteries of the Dark Jungle (1990).

While she dropped out of college when her career as a heroine took off[1] she later went on to pursue a Master's degree in sociology from Karnataka University through correspondence.[1][2]

Anu made her debut as a heroine in 1999 with Hrudaya Hrudaya opposite Shiva Rajkumar and became a top rung heroine in Kannada films. She formed a popular pair with Ramesh Aravind. She has co-starred with superstar Vishnuvardhan in several films like Soorappa, Jamindarru, Hrudayavantha, Sahukaara and Varsha. She has acted in 2-3 Tamil movies as well.

In her upcoming 2020 film based on the life of 12th-century Kannada poet Akka Mahadevi, she plays a dual role; one of the poet and the other of Jyothi, a girl who pursues PhD on the poet.[3]

Anu Prabhakar was honoured by Bangalore's Kolada Math, with the title 'Abhinaya Saraswathi' for her performance in various films. She has won other awards such as 'Kannada State Government best actress award 2000–01' and 'Cinema Express best actress'.

In 2009, she gave her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by the nonprofit organisation TeachAIDS.[4]

Anu married Krishna Kumar, son of actress Jayanthi in March 2002. Citing differences, they divorced in January 2014. In April 2016, she married Raghu Mukherjee, a model-turned-actor.[5] They have a daughter named Nandana.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anu Prabhakar.

• Anu Prabhakar at IMDb