Wikipedia
Upendra Rao (born 18 September 1968) 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 movies like A (1998), Kanyadanam (1998), Upendra (1999), Preethse (2000), Raa (2001), HO (2002), Kutumba (2003), Raktha Kanneeru (2003), Gokarna (2003), Gowramma (2005), Auto Shankar (2005), Aishwarya (2006), Anatharu (2007), Budhivanta (2008), Super (2010), Katari Veera Surasundarangi (2012), Kalpana (2012), S/O Satyamurthy (2015), and Uppi 2 (2015) Kalpana 2 (2016) 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.
Upendra is a 1999 psychological thriller Kannada film written and directed by Upendra. It starred Upendra, Raveena Tandon, Prema and Damini in the lead roles. The film explores three human emotions through the relationship between the main character and the three heroines. The songs of the film were written by Upendra and music was composed by Gurukiran.
The film won Filmfare Award for Best Film (Kannada) and Filmfare Award for Best Director (Kannada). A Japanese who saw the film in Bangalore was impressed by it as he found it similar to the story of Buddha and the concept of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and hence got it released in Japan. It was screened at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan in 2001. A sequel tilted Uppi 2 was released in 2015.
Upendra ( Devanagari: उपेन्द्र) is an Indian masculine given name. The meaning of the Sanskrit word is "younger brother of Indra" and refers to either Krishna or Vishnu, who as a son of Aditi (or in the Vamana avatar) was born subsequently to Indra.