Career
She has primarily worked in Kannada films, though she appeared in a few Tamil (credited as Shali), Telugu and Malayalam cinemas. At the age of 3, Rani was chosen as a child model for a commercial biscuit brand. She followed it with films such as Kulla Kulli (1980), Anupama (1981) and Ranganayaki (1981).
During the late 1980s and throughout 1990s, she was part of several commercial successes such as Ranaranga (1988), Krishna Nee Kunidaga (1989), Panchama Veda (1989), Mysooru Mallige (1992), Mannina Doni (1992), Mane Devru (1993), Anuraga Sangama (1995) and Sparsha (2000) among others
Her Tamil films, Annakili Sonna Kathai (1989) and Vasanthakala Paravai (1991) were commercial successes. Sudharani was born to Gopalakrishna and Nagalakshmi.
Guru Dutt. She began modelling in print ads at the age of three.
Her mother enrolled her in dance classes at age five. Rani is a Kuchipudi and Bharata Natyam dancer.
She was also actively participating in the children shows at the Prabhat Kalavidaru theatre troupe. Rani was noticed by the spouse of actor and singer Rajkumar in a thread ceremony video at the age of 12.
Rajkumar selected her to be the heroine of the film Anand (1986).
She went on to appear in such films as Mana Mechchida Hudugi, Samara, Aasegobba Meesegobba, Anna Tangi, and Midida Shruthi. In 1989, she made her debut in Tamil with the film Annakili Sonna Kathai and after a gap of 3 years, she starred in Vasanthakala Paravai, which was a commercial success. Following the same she has acted in 10 more Tamil films and in all these films she was credited as "Shali".
She speaks Tamil very fluently.
She paired with Ramesh Aravind in over eight films, including Panchama Veda, Shrigandha, Aragini, and Anuraga Sangama. Rani dominated the Kannada film industry in the 1990s.