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 television series 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, Sahukara and Varsha. Anu has acted in a few Tamil movies as well. In 2009, she gave her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by nonprofit organisation TeachAids.^[3] In her 2020 film based on the life of 12th-century Kannada poet Akka Mahadevi, she played a dual role; one of the poet and the other of Jyothi, a girl who pursues PhD on the poet.^[4]

In April 2016, Anu married Raghu Mukherjee, a model-turned-actor.^[5] They have a daughter named Nandana.^[6]

• Note: all films are in Kannada, unless otherwise noted.