Meghana Raj – Popular South Indian Film Actress with credits of ‘Beautiful’, ‘Kurukshetra’, ‘Iruvudellava Bittu‘ etc

Meghana Raj is a popular south Indian film actress who predominantly works in Malayalam and Kannada films. She has also done a few Tamil and Telugu movies, and mostly portrays lead roles on screen. She marked her screen debut with Telugu romantic film, Bendu Apparao R.M.P in 2009, and in a career spanning to more than a decade she has worked in other south Indian languages too. She is the wife of deceased Telugu actor, Chiranjeevi Sarja belonging to Sarja family, which include actors like Shakti Prasad (maternal grandfather), Arjun Sarja (uncle), Dhruva Sarja (brother) and Aishwarya Arjun (cousin).

Born as the daughter of popular Kannada film actors – Sundar Raj and Pramila Joshai

Meghana Sundar Raj was born in year 1990 in Bangalore, Karnataka into a family with film background. Her parents – Sundar Raj and Pramila Joshai are popular Kannada film actors. Pramila is best known for playing Vaidehi in Tamil cult classic, Vaidehi Kaathirunthal. She is a National award winning film producer too. Since young she has acted in theatre, alongside her father. As a child artist Jokumaraswamy was her first play, where she shared stage with her father.

She joined film industry after completing her graduation. In 2006 she was offered the first break by director K. Balachander for Tamil film Krishnaleelai. She shot for the movie in 2008 and the movie got delayed for many reasons even though it was completed in 2009. By that time her debut flick Bendu Apparao R.M.P in a parallel lead role aside Allari Naresh and Kamna Jethmalani got released. The movie was a commercial hit, and she started receiving more film offers from different languages.

Her first four releases were debut flicks in all the leading south Indian languages

Following her screen debut with Telugu flick, Bendu Apparao R.M.P in 2009, she marked her debut in rest three south Indian languages in 2010, in a row. Those movies are Punda in Kannada, Kaadhal Solla Vandhen in Tamil and Yakshiyum Njanum in Malayalam, which got into many controversies, where the director Vinayan had conflicts with AMMA, Malayalam film association. Her debut Tamil and Malayalam flicks became moderate success at the box office while Punda also got noticed. Glamorous and sensual songs filmed on Meghana in the horror flick Yakshiyum Njanum made her a popular figure among youth.

‘Beautiful’ – Malayalam movie was one of her early breakthrough roles

Meghana Raj became regular in Malayalam films after the release of Yakshiyum Njanum. However she continued working in other language films too. Mostly portraying glamorous roles, all those roles went unnoticed. August 15, Raghuvinte Swantham Rasiya, Pachuvum Kovalanum etc were her early releases, before she received her first breakthrough role – ‘Beautiful’(2011), with grey shades. She shared screen space with Jayasurya and Anoop Menon, and her meaty role as a sedative and beautiful home nurse got noticed. “Mazhaneer Thullikal” song filmed on the trio was one of the top chartbuster songs of the year.

The trio shared screen space for 2013 film, Namukku Parkkan, which was a moderate success at box office. However most of her films released later became flops. She shed a few pounds, which helped her to get offers from other languages. After a few more setbacks from Malayalam films, she tasted success through a brief role of Prithviraj Sukumaran’s wife in Memories (2013). She was one of the most sought Malayalam actresses of first half of 2010s.

She returned to Kannada films through Raja Huli after 4 years

In 2013, she returned to Kannada films through commercial hit – Raja Huli, a remake of 2012 Tamil movie Sundarapandian. After that she mostly concentrated to Kannada films. Bahuparak, Aatagara, Vamshodharaka, Lakshmana, Bhujanga, Allama, Noorondu Nenapu, Iruvudellava Bittu, Kurukshetra and Onti etc are among her Kannada releases later. In 2018 she received Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for her lead role in Iruvudellava Bittu. Same role also bagged her nomination at Filmfare awards. Her Malayalam movies – Hallelooya, Zebra varakal etc released during this time went unnoticed. She became a part of the ensemble cast of 100 Degree Celsius, which received favourable reviews.

She got engaged to his childhood friend, actress and co-star Chiranjeevi Sarja in 2017 and they got married in April 2018. They had a 10-year relationship before they got engaged. Sarja passed away in June 2020 aged 39 following a heart attack, just two months after the couple celebrated their second wedding anniversary. Meghana has been active in films even after marriage, and her movies – Selfie Mummy Google Daddy and Buddhivanta 2 are in post-production stage.

Meghana Raj – Some interesting and less-known facts

Actors – Chiranjeevi Sarja and Meghana Raj on the occasion of their marriage in 2018

1. Her husband Chiranjeevi Sarja is the grandson of Kannada villain of yesterdays, Shakti Prasad. Thus she is related to Chiranjeevi’s uncle, Arjun Sarja, very popular south Indian actor and his actress wife Niveditha Arjun (daughter of popular Kannada actor Rajesh). Actress Aishwarya Arjun is the first cousin of her husband.

2. Chiranjeevi’s uncle Kishore Sarja has directed a few Kannada movies including his debut flick. Popular actor Dhruva Sarja of Addhuri fame is her brother-in-law.

3. Her father Sundar Raj worked in more than 180 films, predominantly in Kannada. Her mother Pramila Joshai is a Kannada actress and film producer.

4. She holds Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Christ University, Bangalore.

5. Her role in Punda bagged her Suvarna Film Award for Best Debut Actress in Kannada.

6. She turned a playback singer with Malayalam flick, 100 Degree Celsius. She rendered her voice for the song “Pacha Manja“.