Raghava Lawrence

Raghava Lawrence
Raghava Lawrence in 2015
Born	Raghavendra (1976-01-09) 9 January 1976 Chennai,TamilNadu
Other names	Raghavendra Lawrence
Occupation	Actor, Film & Short Film Director, Dancer, Choreographer, and Philanthropist

Raghava Lawrence 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 four Filmfare Awards and three 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.^[1][2]

Career

Lawrence had brain tumor when he was a child and rarely went to school.^[3][4][5] He became an ardent devotee of the deity, Raghavendra Swamy and added god's name to his name and reverted to HINDUISM.^[4] He built the Raghavendra Swamy Brindavanam Temple at Thirumullaivayal on the Avadi-Ambattur route, which opened from 1 January 2010.^[6]

He was working as a car cleaner for fight master Super Subbarayan.^[4] Rajinikanth saw him dancing and helped him to join the Dancers Union.^[4][7] 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.^[4]

Lawrence first appeared in a song in "Samsara Sangeetham" a Tamil film in 1989 directed by T. Rajendran. Then he appeared 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.^[4] He also appeared in dance sequences in Muta Mesthri, Rakshana and Allari Priyudu.^[4] Producer T V D Prasad offered him the role of a hero in his venture Speed Dancer.^[4] That film was a flop.^[3] After that he acted in 2 Tamil films as hero and those films also flopped.^[3] Director K. Balachander invited him to act in his 100th film Parthale Paravasam.^[7] He got his breakthrough with the Muni film series.

Lawrence is currently to do Shivalinga with Irudhi Suttru heroine Ritika Singh.^[8]

Social service

He did many social service activities in which he has aided many heart surgeries for babies.^[9][10][11] He was also one among the supporters for the Jallikattu protest in Tamil Nadu in January 2017, who provided food, medicine and basic needs to the protesters and also promised to them that he will support them till the protests are over.^[12] A relatively unknown Telugu actress, Sri Reddy, has alleged on 12 July 2018 through her Facebook post that Raghava Lawerance has exploited her by saying that he would give her acting chance in his movies.^[13] He asked for an appointment with kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to donate 1 crore as relief fund for the kerala flood victims^{[14] [15]}

Filmography

Discography

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

Edison Awards

• Manidha Neyam Award – (2015)
• Extraordinary Performance (Male) – Kanchana 2 – Tamil (2015)

References

External links

• Raghavendra on IMDb
• Larencce Charitable Trust