Raghava Lawrence

Raghava Lawrence
Raghava Lawrence
Born	(1976-10-29) 29 October 1976 Chennai, India
Occupation	Film actor, Film Director, Dancer, Choreographer, Music Composer and Philanthropist
Years active	Choreographer (1993 – present) Actor (1998 – present) Director (2004 – present)

Raghava Lawrence (born 29 October 1976)^[1] is an Indian choreographer who has also appeared in films as an actor, director, composer and playback singer. After making his debut as a choreographer in 1993, he began looking for acting opportunities. He began his career as an actor in 1998, in a Telugu film, aged 22. He adopted the name "Lawrence" in 2001, and worked for many prominent actors and directors in Tamil cinema throughout his career. He got his breakthrough with Telugu film Style and then Muni. Lawrence is also known for his intricate hip-hop and westernised dance moves and has won 4 Filmfare Awards and 3 Nandi Awards for best choreography. In 2015, after the death of former Indian president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Lawrence set up a charity trust in his name and donated 1 crore to it.^{[2] [3]}

Career

Lawrence had brain tumor when he was a child and rarely went to school.^[4][5][6] He got cured after his mother went to a temple of Raghavendra Swami^[7] and Lawrence strongly believes that it was Raghavendra Swami who cured him of his tumour.^[8] He became an ardent devotee of the deity and added its name to his name.^[5] He built the Raghavendra Swamy Brindavanam Temple at Thirumullaivayal on the Avadi-Ambattur route, which opened from 1 January 2010.^[9]

He was working as a car cleaner for fight master Super Subbarayan.^[5] Rajinikanth saw him dancing and helped him to join the Dancers Union.^[5][10] Chiranjeevi offered him the job of choreographing the dances for Hitler. Pleased with Lawrence's work, Chiranjeevi asked him to choreograph dances for Master, his next film too.^[5]

Lawrence first appeared in a song in Donga Police in 1991, also doing some dances with Prabhu Deva. He was a background dancer in the song Chikku Bukku Chikku Bukku Railey in Gentleman.^[5] He also appeared in dance sequences in Muta Mesthri, Rakshana and Allari Priyudu.^[5] Producer T V D Prasad offered him the role of a hero in his venture Speed Dancer.^[5] That film was a flop.^[4] After that he acted in 2 Tamil films as hero and those films also flopped.^[4] Director K. Balachander invited him to act in his 100th film Parthale Paravasam.^[10] He got his breakthrough with the Muni film series.

Filmography

As Actor

As Director

Television

• Masthaana Masthaana Part 2 (2009)

Awards

Filmfare Awards

• Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South – Annayya – Telugu (2000)
• Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South – Paarthale Paravasam – Tamil (2001)
• Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South – Indra – Telugu (2002)
• Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South – Style – Telugu (2006)

Nandi Awards

• Nandi Award for Best Choreographer – Annayya (2000)
• Nandi Award for Best Choreographer – Indra – Telugu (2002)
• Nandi Award for Best Choreographer – Style – Telugu (2006)

References

External links

• Raghavendra at the Internet Movie Database
• Larencce Charitable Trust