Upendra Rao (born 18 September 1967) known mononymously as Upendra, is an Indian film actor, director, producer, screenwriter, lyricist and playback singer who works primarily in Kannada cinema. He started his career under actor and film director Kashinath, as a writer and an assistant director. His first directorial venture was Tharle Nan Maga (1992).

In the late 1990s he directed Om, which portrayed actual Bangalore gangsters, followed by A, which was his debut film as an actor. Upendra, his next film, starred Raveena Tandon, a Bollywood actress. After a decade of acting in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil films, he returned to the role of director with the multilingual movie Super, which was well-received critically and commercially.

Upendra is known for his work in films like A (1998), Upendra (1999), Preethse (2000), Raa (2001), Kutumba (2003), Raktha Kanneeru (2003), Gokarna (2003), Gowramma (2005), Auto Shankar (2005), Aishwarya (2006), Anatharu (2007), Budhivanta (2008), Super (2010), Katari Veera Surasundarangi (2012), Godfather (2012) and Kalpana (2012). Upendra has thus established himself as one of the most successful actors and directors of Kannada cinema. He is currently one of the highest paid directors and actors in the Kannada cinema.

Biographie

Upendra was born in Koteshwara near Kundapura, Udupi district of Karnataka. On 14 December 2003, Uppi married former Miss Kolkata Priyanka Trivedi who met him first on the sets of the Telugu movie Raa and then on the sets of H2O. Upendra and his family reside in Banashankari III Stage in Bangalore.