Telugu actress Sharada birthday today

Sharada (born 25th June 1945) is a three-time National Award winning Indian actress and Indian Parliament member. She originally hails from Andhra Pradesh. She has achieved success through Malayalam movies. Initially she did many supporting roles in Telugu films and later on moved to Malayalam film industry and gained success there. She is also known as Urvasi Sharada because earlier the National Film Award for Best Actress was officially designated the Urvasi Award. Sharada has been selected for the prestigious NTR National Award instituted by the Andhra Pradesh state government for the year 2010.

Film career

In 1959, she began her career as Sharada. The change in name was attributed to the presence of a few other actors in the industry with the name Saraswati.[1] She came under contract to L.V. Prasad, a Telugu producer. Though she didn't get to act in any of his films, she got her formal training in acting under him, including the Navarasa lessons. She largely attributes her performances and growth in the field to this training.[1] Her first break came with the Akkineni Nageswara Rao starrer Iddaru Mitrulu, which was a major hit. Noted for the role in the film, she got chances from Tamil and Malayalam films as well.

The year 1965 changed her career as Sharada carved her niche for herself in the Malayalam film industry with her performances in Shakuntala, Murappennu, Udhyogastha by P. Venu, Kattu Thulasi and Inapravukal. After that, she focused in Malayalam films, acting only a few roles in other languages. Recognition came in 1967 in the form of a national honorary award for her performances in various films of 1966 including Iruttinte Athmavu.[1] The award was the predecessor to the National Film Award for Best Actress, which was instituted in 1968. In 1969, she won her first National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Thulabharam. She went on to win the award 2 more times, for Swayamvaram (1972, Malayalam) and Nimajjanam (1978, Telugu). She also won the Kerala State Film Awards for Best Actress one time.

Later she saw success in Telugu films in protagonist roles. She was so popular that she did lead roles in films starring most of the successful heroes of Telugu film industry. Post 1993, she became choosy and did only a few films. Her major films off late were Mazhathullikkilukkam (2002, Malayalam), Rappakal (2005, Malayalam), Nayika (2011, Malayalam) and Stalin (2006, Telugu).

She owns a chocolate factory named Lotus Chocolates. She was elected as Member of Parliament on Telugu Desam Party ticket from her native town of Tenali.