P. C. Ramakrishna
Encyclopedia
P. C. Ramakrishna is a veteran theatre actor and voice artist based in Chennai
, India
. He is renowned for his role in several plays, such as Anna Weiss, Dance Like A Man, The Good Doctor and has provided voice-overs to numerous advertisements, documentaries and corporate shows. He has been a member of the English theatre group The Madras Players
since 1969.
, India
, and completed his undergraduate education at the Loyola College, Chennai
. Ramakrishna's early interests included learning the mridangam – an ancient Indian percussion instrument
– and he trained under Palghat Mani Iyer
in Chennai and Tanjavur. He played mridangam for 18 years since the age of 3 and was considering making it a profession, but was discouraged by low wages for musicians. Instead, he joined the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and after graduation worked in the corporate sector from 1963 until voluntary retirement in 1993.
, and was later approached by the Doordarshan
. Ramakrishna was one of the first English news readers in Indian television
.
Ramakrishna's notable plays include Anna Weiss, where he plays the role of a man who is accused of sexual abuse by his daughter, Mercy, a monologue
based on a novel by the Tamil
author Sivasankari and Dance Like A Man where he depicts the ageing of a man with the change of a shawl.
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He is renowned for his role in several plays, such as Anna Weiss, Dance Like A Man, The Good Doctor and has provided voice-overs to numerous advertisements, documentaries and corporate shows. He has been a member of the English theatre group The Madras Players
The Madras Players
The Madras Players is an Indian amateur theatre group and is the oldest English-language theatre group in Chennai, India. The Madras Players have staged over 240 theatre productions over the span of more than fifty years.-History:...
since 1969.
Biography
Ramakrishna did his schooling in KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and completed his undergraduate education at the Loyola College, Chennai
Loyola College, Chennai
Loyola College is a Jesuit institution in Chennai, India. The college admits undergraduates and post-graduates and offers degrees in the liberal arts, sciences and commerce. It is an autonomous institution affiliated with the University of Madras.-History:...
. Ramakrishna's early interests included learning the mridangam – an ancient Indian percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
– and he trained under Palghat Mani Iyer
Palghat Mani Iyer
Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer was one of the leading mridangists in the field of Carnatic music and the first mridangist to win the Sangeetha Kalanidhi andPadmabhushan awards....
in Chennai and Tanjavur. He played mridangam for 18 years since the age of 3 and was considering making it a profession, but was discouraged by low wages for musicians. Instead, he joined the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and after graduation worked in the corporate sector from 1963 until voluntary retirement in 1993.
Career
Ramakrishna worked on his first play as a director in 1969, which was also the only play he directed. Subsequently he was auditioned for the play The Crucible by The Madras Players, a role which he eventually got. While working in the industry, he hosted programs on the All India RadioAll India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
, and was later approached by the Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
. Ramakrishna was one of the first English news readers in Indian television
Television in India
Television is one of the major mass media of India and is a huge industry and has thousands of programmes in all the states of India. The small screen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kind some even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremely popular with housewives as well as...
.
Ramakrishna's notable plays include Anna Weiss, where he plays the role of a man who is accused of sexual abuse by his daughter, Mercy, a monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
based on a novel by the Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
author Sivasankari and Dance Like A Man where he depicts the ageing of a man with the change of a shawl.