Raghava Lawrence

Raghava Lawrence

Raghava Lawrence
Born Chennai, India
Occupation Film actor, Film Director, Dancer, Choreographer, Music Composer and Philanthropist
Years active Choreographer (1993 – present)
Actor (1998 – present)
Director (2004 – present)

Raghava Lawrence is an Indian choreographer who has also appeared in films as an actor, director, composer and playback singer. After making his debut as a choreographer in 1993, he began looking for acting opportunities. He began his career as an actor in 1998, in a Telugu film, aged 22. He adopted the name "Lawrence" in 2001, and worked for many prominent actors and directors in Tamil cinema throughout his career. He got his breakthrough with Telugu film Style and then Muni. Lawrence is also known for his intricate hip-hop and westernised dance moves and has won 4 Filmfare Awards and 3 Nandi Awards for best choreography. In 2015, after the death of former Indian president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Lawrence set up a charity trust in his name and donated 1 crore to it.[1][2]

Career

Lawrence had brain tumor when he was a child and rarely went to school.[3][4][5] He got cured after his mother went to a temple of Raghavendra Swami[6] and Lawrence strongly believes that it was Raghavendra Swami who cured him of his tumour.[7] He became an ardent devotee of the deity and added its name to his name.[4] He built the Raghavendra Swamy Brindavanam Temple at Thirumullaivayal on the Avadi-Ambattur route, which opened from 1 January 2010.[8]

He was working as a car cleaner for fight master Super Subbarayan.[4] Rajinikanth saw him dancing and helped him to join the Dancers Union.[4][9] Chiranjeevi offered him the job of choreographing the dances for Hitler. Pleased with Lawrence's work, Chiranjeevi asked him to choreograph dances for Master, his next film too.[4]

Lawrence first appeared in a song in Donga Police in 1991, also doing some dances with Prabhu Deva. He was a background dancer in the song Chikku Bukku Chikku Bukku Railey in Gentleman.[4] He also appeared in dance sequences in Muta Mesthri, Rakshana and Allari Priyudu.[4] Producer T V D Prasad offered him the role of a hero in his venture Speed Dancer.[4] That film was a flop.[3] After that he acted in 2 Tamil films as hero and those films also flopped.[3] Director K. Balachander invited him to act in his 100th film Parthale Paravasam.[9] He got his breakthrough with the Muni film series.

Lawrence is currently to do Chandramukhi2 with IRudhi Suttru heroin Ritika Singh.[10]

Social service

He did many social service activities in which he has aided many heart surgeries for babies.[11][12][13]

Filmography

Actor

Film Year Language Role Notes
Speed Dancer 1999 Telugu
Parthen Rasithen 2000 Tamil Doss
Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven 2000 Tamil
Parthale Paravasam 2001 Tamil Azhagu
Arpudham 2002 Tamil Ashok Kumar
Style 2002 Tamil Rishaanth
Thendral 2004 Tamil Kumar
Style 2006 Telugu Raghava
Muni 2007 Tamil Ganesh
Don 2007 Telugu Raghava
Pandi 2008 Tamil Pandi
Rajadhi Raja 2009 Tamil Raja
Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam 2010 Tamil Singam, Singaram
Muni 2: Kanchana 2011 Tamil Raghava
Muni 3: Kanchana 2 2015 Tamil Raghava, Shiva
Motta Siva Ketta Siva 2017 Tamil Siva Post-production
Shivalinga 2017 Tamil Filming

Dancer

Film Song Year Language Notes
Gentleman "Chikku Bukku Rayile" 1993 Tamil
Uzhaippali "Uzhaippali Illatha" 1993 Tamil
Mutha Mestri "Ee Pettakku" 1993 Telugu
Chinna Madam 1994 Tamil
Amarkalam "Maha Ganapathi" 1999 Telugu
Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven "Sollu Thalaiva" 2000 Tamil
Kshemamga Velli Labhamga Randi "Lovvuki Age" 2000 Telugu
Chala Bagundi "Yentabagundi Basu" 2000 Telugu
Thirunelveli "Yele Azhagamma" 2000 Tamil
Asura "Maha Ganapathi" 2001 Kannada
Varushamellam Vasantham "Naan Ready Neenga Readya" 2002 Tamil
Roja Kootam "Subbamma" 2002 Tamil
Baba "Maya Maya" 2002 Tamil
Ninne Istapaddanu "Krishna Zilla" 2003 Telugu
Satyam "Kuch Kuch" 2003 Telugu
Thirumalai "Thaamthakka Dheemthakka" 2003 Tamil
Mass "Mass" 2004 Telugu
Pen Singam "Adi Aadi Asaiyum Edupu" 2010 Tamil
Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam "Live The Moment" 2015 Tamil

As Director

Year Film Language Notes
2004 Mass Telugu
2006 Style Telugu
2007 Muni Tamil
2007 Don Telugu Also music composer
2011 Muni 2: Kanchana Tamil
2012 Rebel Telugu Also music
2015 Muni 3: Kanchana 2 Tamil Movie

Television

Awards

Filmfare Awards
Nandi Awards
Edison Awards

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.