Background
Bharathi was born in a Marathi-speaking family in, Karnataka.
Bharathi was born in a Marathi-speaking family in, Karnataka.
She was most seen as a leading actress in the Kannada film industry during the late 1960s to 1980s. Her first Kannada film was the 1966 romantic comedy Love in Bangalore. She was critically acclaimed for her roles in movies like Runa Muktalu, Avalukendru Oru Manam, Bangaaradha Manushya, Doorada Betta, Gandondu Hennaru, Bangaarada Jinke,, Bhagya Jyothi and the Kannada Doordarshan serial Janani.
In 2012, she appeared as a strict, no-nonsense sessions court judge in Tennessee Seetharam"s Kannada daily serial Mukta-Mukta.
She has acted alongside Doctor.Rajkumar, Dilip Kumar, Doctor.Sivaji Ganesan, French National Research Agency, M.G.Ramachandran, Doctor.NTR, Prem Nazir, Gemini Ganesan, Manoj Kumar, Kalyan Kumar, Udaykumar, Doctor.Vishnuvardhan, Jaishankar, Ravichandran, Shoban Babu, Krishna, R. Muthuraman, Advanced Vehicle Manager .Rajan, Krishnam Raju, Kanta Rao, Haranath, Sivakumar, Vinod Khanna, Rakesh Roshan, Doctor.Ambrish, Ananth Nag, Chalam, Rajesh, Gangadhar, Vinod Mehra and many other popular actors. Bharathi has acted in a number of Hindi films as well, like Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani (1970, starring Balraj Sahni), Manoj Kumar"s Purab Aur Paschim (1970), Prabhat Khanna"s Uttar Dakshin (1987), Izzatdaar (1990, starring Dilip Kumar), Mehmood"s Kunwaara Baap (1974), Aao Pyaar Karen (1994, with Saif Ali Khan and Shilpa Shetty), and many more.
Bharathi has acted in various Malayalam films with many other leading actors. She has played various types of roles but is best known for her character roles.
In Tamil, she acted as the leading heroine to all three doyens of Tamil film industry in those days: Sivaji Ganesan, M.G. Ramachandran, Gemini Ganesan and R. Muthuraman.
In Telugu cinema field, she has acted in Jai Jawan 1970 and Govula Gopanna 1968, Sipayi Chinnayya and Bangaru Gajulu ( all with Akkineni Nageswara Rao) which were hits. Apart from acting Bharathi played various roles as singer, associate director et cetera She has sung a duet with T.M.Soundarrajan for Snehithi Tamil film.
The song Thanga nilave nee illamal is picturised on Gemini Ganesan and herself.
She had represented Karnataka State Level Throw-ball team during her college days.