Avinash Yelandur

His first job after his M.Phil. was that of an English lecturer in National Institute of Engineering, Mysore. He continued to teach at MES College Bangalore as one of the most popular lecturers of the college. However, soon his passion for theatre took him abroad to train in acting at Mermaid Theatre, London.[4] On returning home, he worked in Kannada theatre as part of the renowned B Jayashree's troupe "Spandana" and with the Shankar Nag as part of his "Sanketh" for many years.

Films were a natural choice for Avinash after his debut in G. V. Iyer's "Madhvacharya" based on the life and times of the twelfth-century enlightened master as the protagonist Saint Madhva, a film that won several national and state awards. His debut in mainstream cinema however, was with Shivarajkumar's Samyuktha, which went in to become a hit with audiences, ushering him into the world of South Indian cinema. Since then, he has since acted in over 400 films in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and English in a career spanning nearly three decades. He has worked with over two hundred directors such as K. Balachander, Girish Kasaravalli, T. N. Seetharam, A. R. Murugadoss, Puri Jagannadh, P. Vasu, Vetrimaaran, Vetrimaaran, Suseenthiran, Suri, Prashant Neel, Gautham Vasudev Menon and T. S. Nagabharana.

Avinash's most memorable acting roles to date are in Girish Kasarvalli's National award-winning Dweepa, where he played the protagonist opposite actress Soundarya, T. S. Nagabharana's National award-winning Chinnari Muththa, Chiguridha Kanasu and Singarrevva, and T. N. Seetaram's National Award-winning Mathadana. P. Vasu's hit series Apthamitra, Chandramukhi and Aptharakshaka were high points in his career and have fetched him several national, state smf popular awards. 5Ters, an experimental (computer graphics) children's film in Hindi gave him the opportunity of playing good and evil characters and he considers the film to be a high point of his career.

Apart from his diverse repertoire, he has had the privilege of playing major roles alongside doyens such as Rajkumar, Rajnikanth, Mammooty, Vishnuvardhan, stars such as Nagarjun, Venkatesh, NandhamuriBalakrishna, Shivarajkumar, Vijay, Vikram, Ajith, and also contemporary stars like Puneeth Rajkumar, Kiccha sudeep, Yash, Surya, Karthi, Arya, Siddharth, Mahesh Babu, Udhay Kiran, Prithviraj Sukumaran and several of the younger stars of South Indian Cinema.

Avinash (left) and Malavika Avinash in 1998 Kannada serial Mayamruga