AUTORAJA !!!
AUTORAJA, This word brings a thousand sensations among the auto drivers in Bangalore! , Autoraja is a person being worshiping by thousands of auto drivers & also his fans here. I guess many have noticed that majority of Auto’s in Bangalore exhibit his picture in there vehicles.
Who is AUTORAJA? It is none other than our great Shankar Nag, Who was a noted film star, Theater artist, Director & a simple human.
Why AUTORAJA? He had acted in a movie called “Autoraja” in 1982 where he has represented as an auto driver in turn created a sensation among the autodrivers’s,thereafter he was accepted as the representative of an auto drivers.
In Bangalore you can see lot of Shankar Nag fans club, Associations, Unions etc…
About Shankar Nag
He was born on Nov 09 1954, later moved to Mumbai where he as much attracted with the Theater activities, later moved back to Bangalore and settled here.
He married another know theater artist called Arundathi.
His contribution for the Movie & Theater is always memorable, He even directed the popular DD serial called “Malgudi days”, some of his movies which I admire are Accident, AutoRaja, Geetha, and Minchina Ota etc…
His first acted movie is “Ondanondu Kaladalli” directed by Girish Karnad, His first directed movie is “Janma Janmada Anubandha”
Among his friends he was a very simple person he always gave a respect to Humanity NOT Personality, He has introduced many new talents who in turn now a best actors, He gave a new dimension of thinking to Kannada movie industry.
It was a real shock for the people of Karnataka on September 30, 1990 as our all time favorite AUTORAJA had met an accident near Davanagere and it was announced that he was spot dead, He is no more.
I still remember that day, I was just 12 Yrs, Someone passed the message that AutoRaja is no more and I was in tears….. Felt that death was happened in my family.
In the memory of Shankar Nag his wife Arundhathi Nag has constructed a drama theater called “Rangashankara” which is now a place to stage dramas in Bangalore, It’s a place worth to visit.
During the eve of Suvarna Karnataka Rajyotsava… It is worth to remember a great personality like ShankarNag!
Shankarnag on wikipedia
Good Post. Shankar even got an award in one of International Film Festival for his performance in ‘oMdAnoMdu kAladalli’ directed by Karnad.
Also, there were rumours that he was killed by none other than Verappan i.e. accident was pre-planned since he had plans to make a movie on Verappan.
Thanks for sharing such informative post.
Nice post… and also 8 out of 10 autos have Shankar nag’s photo displayed.
“Nodi Swamy Navirodu Hige” is one such movie which show cased the typical Blr middle class life….ofcourse with the flavour of comedy
Good posts, This is the kind of information which will make some of us non-kannadiga’s understand this state and its people better and thus the process of assimilation easier, though may not be the primary purpose of the post.
nice to see a post on shankar guru…. i think shankar nag and maniratnam are easily my all time favorite movie personailities… these guys rule !
some more posts about shankar nag that i had bookmarked sometime ago:
http://alpha-q.blogspot.com/2006/02/jus-imagine.html
http://www.ourkarnataka.com/Articles/sreesha/shankarnag.htm
Nice post Shadow. Echo what howdoesitmatter said above.
Nice to know that other die-hard fans of our beloved Shankar Nag still exist…I still remember that fateful morning…and exactly what I was doing when I heard the dreadful news…nice post.