Kanchana

Kanchana (actress)

Vasundhara Devi, known by her stage name Kanchana (born 16 August 1939) is a noted Indian actress of the 1960s and 1970s. She acted in all four major south Indian languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam, as well as in a fewHindi films.[

Due to  family  struggle she went to work as an air hostess to support her family, when she was discovered by the film director C. V. Sridhar on a plane where he was a passenger. He gave her the lead role in his film Kaadhalikka Neramillai in 1963 and changed her name to Kanchana, since there was already another actress named Vasundhara Devi, mother of star Vyjayanthimala.[ Kanchana acted in over 150 films – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, with a successful acting career.

She retired from films in the early 1980s  In 2005, she was presented with the MGR award and in 2007 the ANR Swarna Kankanam award.[6][7]

She was appropriately known as the Queen of the Seventies in South Indian film industry. Her performances in the movies Pavitra Bandham, Manchivaadu were well appreciated and recognised. She played the role of Uttara in the film Veerabhimanyu. The following year she acted in the Annapurna pictures film Aatma Gowravamwith veteran director K. Viswanath.

She acted with Krishnam Raju in some glamorous roles in Neeti Nijayitee (1972), Parivartana (1975), Nenante Nene and Dharma Daata. Not only in social roles, she acted some mythological roles in pictures likeShri Krishnavataram (1967). After retirement as heroine, she acted in some good films including Ananda Bhairavi andShrimad Virat Veerabrahmendra Swami Charitra in 1984.

In Tamil, she acted with R. Muthuraman in about 19 films including Kaadhalikka Neramillai, Kodimalar, Thulabharam (Tamil version), Thangai, Bama Vijayam andAvalukendru Oru Manam. She also acted with Sivaji Ganesan in Sivandha Mann, Vilayattu Pillai and Avan Oru Sarithiram. She did two films with MGR, Naan Yen Pirandhen and Parakkum Paavai. Apart from that, she was paired with many Tamil heroes like A. V. M. Rajan, S. S. Rajendran, Gemini Ganesan , Jaishankar,Ravichandran and Sivakumar.

After her retirement as a heroine, she acted in some good films including Ananda Bhairavi, Shrimad Virat Veerabrahmendra Swami Charitra, Johnny, Sigappu Rojakkal,Mouna Ragam and more as a supporting role.

Awards

• She was presented with the MGR award in 2005.

• ANR Swarna Kankanam award in 2007

thanks wikipedia