Prakash Raj or popularly known as Jaikant Shikre in Hindi film industry has done some of the entertaining films in Bollywood. He is also a film director, producer, thespian and television presenter who is known for his works in the South Indian film industry, and Hindi films. He acted in back-to-back stage shows for ₹300 a month in the initial stages of his career, when he joined Kalakshetra, Bengaluru, and he has 2,000 street theatre performances to his credit. Apart from his mother tongue Kannada, Prakash's fluency in Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi and English has placed him among the most sought actors in Indian cinema. He has played a variety of roles, most notably as the antagonist and, of late, as a character actor. Prakash, as an actor has won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for Mani Ratnam's ‘Iruvar’, a National Film Award – Special Mention (feature film) for a Telugu film ‘Antahpuram’ directed by Krishna Vamsi in 1998 and a National Film Award for Best Actor in 2009 for his role in ‘Kanchivaram’, a Tamil film directed by Priyadarshan, and as a producer he has won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada for ‘Puttakkana Highway’, directed by his long-time theatre friend B. Suresh in 2011. by Snehha Suresh