Raghava Lawrence

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Raghava Lawrence
Raghava Lawrence
Born	Raghavendra Lawrence 9 January 1976 (age 41) Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Occupation	Film actor, Film Director, Dancer, Choreographer, Music Composer and Philanthropist
Years active	Choreographer (1993 – present) Actor (1998 – present) Director (2004 – present)
Spouse(s)	Latha

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 got cured after his mother went to a temple of Raghavendra Swami^[6] and Lawrence strongly believes that it was Raghavendra Swami who cured him of his tumour.^[7] He became an ardent devotee of the deity and added its name to his name.^[4] He built the Raghavendra Swamy Brindavanam Temple at Thirumullaivayal on the Avadi-Ambattur route, which opened from 1 January 2010.^[8]
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]^[9] 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.^[9] He got his breakthrough with the Muni film series.
Lawrence is currently to do Shivalinga with Irudhi Suttru heroine Ritika Singh.^[10]

Social service

He did many social service activities in which he has aided many heart surgeries for babies.^[11]^[12]^[13] 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.^[14]

Filmography

Director

Film	Year	Language	Notes
Mass	2004	Telugu
Style	2006	Telugu
Muni	2007	Tamil
Don	2007	Telugu	Also music composer
Muni 2: Kanchana	2011	Tamil
Rebel	2012	Telugu	Also music composer
Muni 3: Kanchana 2	2015	Tamil

Actor

Film	Year	Language	Role	Notes
Speed Dancer	1999	Telugu
Parthen Rasithen	2000	Tamil	Doss
Parthale Paravasam	2001	Tamil	Azhagu
Arpudham	2002	Tamil	Ashok Kumar
Style	2002	Tamil	Rishaanth
Thendral	2004	Tamil	Kumar
Style	2006	Telugu	Raghava
Muni	2007	Tamil	Ganesh
Don	2007	Telugu	Raghava
Pandi	2008	Tamil	Pandi
Rajadhi Raja	2009	Tamil	Raja
Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam	2010	Tamil	Singam, Singaram
Muni 2: Kanchana	2011	Tamil	Raghava
Muni 3: Kanchana 2	2015	Tamil	Raghava, Shiva
Motta Siva Ketta Siva	2017	Tamil	Siva	Also playback singer for song "Motta Paiyan"
Shivalinga	2017	Tamil	Shivalingeswaran	Post-production

Dancer

Film	Song	Year	Language
Gentleman	"Chikku Bukku Rayile"	1993	Tamil
Uzhaippali	"Uzhaippali Illatha"	1993	Tamil
Mutha Mestri	"Ee Pettakku"	1993	Telugu
Chinna Madam		1994	Tamil
Thai Thangai Paasam	"Roopu Tera Masthana"	1995	Tamil
Amarkalam	"Maha Ganapathi"	1999	Tamil
Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven	"Sollu Thalaiva"	2000	Tamil
Kshemamga Velli Labhamga Randi	"Lovvuki Age"	2000	Telugu
Chala Bagundi	"Yentabagundi Basu"	2000	Telugu
Thirunelveli	"Yele Azhagamma"	2000	Tamil
Asura	"Maha Ganapathi"	2001	Kannada
Varushamellam Vasantham	"Naan Ready Neenga Readya"	2002	Tamil
Roja Kootam	"Subbamma"	2002	Tamil
Baba	"Maya Maya"	2002	Tamil
Ninne Istapaddanu	"Krishna Zilla"	2003	Telugu
Satyam	"Kuch Kuch"	2003	Telugu
Pudhiya Geethai	"Annamalai"	2003	Tamil
Thirumalai	"Thaamthakka Dheemthakka"	2003	Tamil
Mass	"Mass"	2004	Telugu
Pen Singam	"Adi Aadi Asaiyum Edupu"	2010	Tamil
Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam	"Live The Moment"	2015	Tamil

Television

Masthaana Masthaana Part II (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)

Edison Awards

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

References

"Lawrence donates 1cr". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.

http://www.ndtv.com/tamil-nadu-news/for-jallikattu-ar-rahman-will-fast-sri-sri-ravi-shankar-and-sadhuguru-jaggi-vasudeva-lend-support-1650625

External links

v t e Films directed by Raghava Lawrence

Muni series	Muni (2007) Muni 2: Kanchana (2011) Kanchana 2 (2015)

Other films	Mass (2005) (Telugu) Style (2006) (Telugu) Don (2007) (Telugu) Rebel (2012) (Telugu)