Actor Prakash Raj

Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai on 26 March 1965) is an Indian film actor, director, producer and television presenter, who mainly works in the South Indian film industry.[1] He used to act in back-to-back stage shows for INR300 a month in the initial stages of his career when he joined Kalakshetra, Bengaluru and he has 2,000 street theater performances to his credit.
After working in the Kannada television industry and Kannada cinema for a few years, he made his debut in Tamil cinema through Duet (1994) by K. Balachander and has since been a commercially successful film star in Tamil. In remembrance, he named his production company Duet Movies. Prakash has also worked in a number of Bollywood films.
Apart from his mother tongue Kannada, Prakash's fluency in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi and English has placed him among the most sought after film actors in Indian cinema.He has played a variety of roles, most notably as the antagonist and of late, as a character actor. Prakash, as an actor has won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for Mani Ratnam's Iruvar and a National Film Award for Best Actor in 2009 for his role in Kanchivaram, a Tamil film directed by Priyadarshan and as a producer has won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada for the film Puttakkana Highway directed by his long time theater friend B. Suresh in 2011. Prakash was also the host of Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi during the shows second season.
Prakash Raj was born in Bangalore, Karnatakaon 26 March 1965 in a lower-middle-class family to a Kannada Speaking Family. He completed schooling at St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore and later joined St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore. Prakash Rai changed his name to Prakash Raj based on prominent Tamil film director K. Balachander's advice, however he is still called Prakash Rai in his home town Karnataka.
Prakash Raj married actress Lalitha Kumari in 1994. They have two daughters—Meghana and Pooja. & a son Sidhu. The couple divorced in 2009. He married choreographer Pony Verma on August 24, 2010.