# Arundathi Nag

Arundhati Nag (née Rao; born 1955/1956) is an Indian actress. She has been involved with multilingual Theatre in India, for over 25 years, first in Mumbai where she got involved with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), and did various productions in Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi theatre, and then in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English, in Bangalore.
They stayed in Chintamani, Karnataka for a few years.
Following her marriage to Kannada actor-director Shankar Nag (1980–1990), her association with theatre continued in Bangalore, where she performed several plays in Kannada: Girish Karnad's Anju Mallige, 27 Mavalli Circle based on the famous play Wait Until Dark, Sandhya Chayya (Jayant Dalvi), Girish Karnad's Nagamandala, and Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage as Hulaguru Huliyavva. She also worked in several Kannada movies: Accident (1984), Parameshi Prema Prasanga (1984) and Nodiswamy, Navirodu Heege (1987).
Nag built a theatre space in Bangalore Ranga Shankara: . She is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2008), the Padma Shri (2010) and the National Film Awards (57th) in 2010.

## Career

Nag's career spans over 40 years of theatre, film and television. She is the founder and the Managing Trustee of the Sanket Trust, established in 1992, which runs Ranga Shankara, a theatre space in Bangalore.,.
The annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, now in its twelfth year, has become a regular feature on Bangalore's cultural calendar.
Nag continues to be actively involved in theatre: her most recent works include Girish Karnad's "Bikhre Bimb" (Hindi) and "Odakalu Bimba" (Kannada).
Her last major movie was The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016), in which she played the mother of the mathematical wizard Ramanujan. She has also appeared in Hindi movies including Paa (2009), "Sapnay" (1997) and "Dil Se" (1998), Kannada movies including Golibar (1991), Jogi (2005) and "Andar Bahar", and Malayalam Da Thadiya (2012) and Drama (2018 film)

## Personal life

Nag was born in 1956 in Delhi, stayed in Netaji Nagar. Her family moved to Mumbai when she was 10. At 17, she met Shankar Nag, also a theatre artist. Six years later, the two got married and moved to Bangalore. Shankar became a well-known film actor, and later a director, most remembered for his TV adaptation of R. K. Narayan's Malgudi Days (1987). They had a daughter together, Kaavya.
In 1990, Shankar died in a car accident. Arundhati continued to act in theatre, and began to work towards realising her dream of a theatre space, which in 2004, finally materialised into Ranga Shankara, which is today one of India's premier venues for theatre.

## Filmography
### Actor

| Year | Film | Role | Language | Notes |
| 1979 | 22 June 1897 | | Marathi | |
| 1983 | Nodi Swamy Navirodu Hige | Jaya | Kannada | |
| 1984 | Accident | Maya Rani | Kannada | Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1985 | Parameshi Prema Prasanga | Ramamani | Kannada | |
| 1985 | Poi Mugangal | | Tamil | |
| 1993 | Golibar | Bharathi Devi | Kannada | |
| 1996 | Shiva Sainya | Shiva's mentor | Kannada | |
| 1997 | Minsaara Kanavu | Mother Superior | Tamil | |
| 1998 | Dil Se.. | AIR station director | Hindi | |
| 2003 | Ek Alag Mausam | Aparna's mother | Hindi | |
| 2005 | Jogi | Bhagyakka | Kannada | Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 2007 | Chaurahen | Nandakumar Nair | Hindi | |
| 2009 | Paa | Vidya's mother/Bum | Hindi | National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 2012 | Da Thadiya | "Knight Rider" | Malayalam | |
| 2013 | Andhar Bahar | | Kannada | |
| 2016 | The Man Who Knew Infinity | Srinivasa Ramanujan's mother | English | |
| 2018 | Drama | Rosamma John Chacko | Malayalam | |
| 2022 | Escaype Live | Lakshmi Amma | Hindi | Webseries |
| 2022 | Medium Spicy | | Marathi | |

### Assistant director

* A Passage to India (1984)
* Indian Summer (1987)

## Awards

* 2008: Won: Sangeet Natak Akademi Award – Theatre, Acting
* 2009: Won: 57th National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress – Paa
* 2010: Awarded: Padma Shri Award