Happy birthday: Bollywood's Gani Bhai turns 51 today

Mumbai: The polyglot Indian film actor/producer/director/theatre-artiste and television personality, Prakash Raj, who started his career from the south Indian television industry and later, managed to bag several projects in Bollywood with his unmatchable acting skills, has turned 51 on Saturday.

On this noteworthy occasion, newztrack.com wishes the illustrious actor a very happy birthday and brings its readers some very interesting facts about ‘Gani Bhai’ of Bollywood:

Personal life and Education:

• Prakash Raj was born in Bangalore city of Karnataka on March 26, 1965.
• He completed schooling at St. Joseph Boys’ High School and joined St. Joseph College of Commerce in Bangalore for higher education.
• ‘Prakash Rai’ changed his name to ‘Prakash Raj’ as suggested by prominent Tamil film director K. Balachander while he is still called by the previous name in his home state Karnataka.
• He married Tollywood actress Lalitha Kumari in 1994 and they have two daughters and a son.
• The couple parted ways in 2009 and Praksh tied nuptial knot with much younger choreographer Pony Verma in 2010.

Career:

• Prakash embarked on his acting journey with a Doordarshan serial called Bisilu Kudure in Kannada language.
• He later played supporting characters in Kannada films like Raamachari, Ranadheera and Lockup Death.
• Naanu Nanna Kasanu was his first film as a director which completed in 125 days becoming the biggest hit of the year.
• The versatile actor was nominated for the Filmfare South 'The Best Director' category for his very first film.
• Dhaya (2002) was the first film produced by him in which he was seen playing lead role with actress Meena.
• The film (Dhaya) earned him a Special Jury National Award for his performance.
• He was seen playing important roles in Bollywood movies like Wanted, Singham, Dabangg-2, Policegiri, etc.
• He is a five-time National Award winner and four-time State Film Award winner.
• He received Zee Cine Award for best actor in a negative role for ‘Singham’ in 2012.