Dhananjaya, also popularly known as 'Daali', is an Indian film actor, producer and lyricist working predominantly in the Kannada film industry but is also known in Telugu & Tamil film industries as well. He is well-known for his portrayal of characters with different shades throughout his film career. He started his acting career as a theatre artist in Rangayana theatre at Mysore. He then went on to bag a role as a lead actor in a Kannada movie, Director's Special (2013) in 2013 after being recognised while playing a drama. The film fetched him the best debut actor award at the SIIMA Awards for his performance. After playing the lead role in many of the films in the later part of his career, he got a breakthrough for playing a menacing villain role in the blockbuster film Tagaru (2018). This success fetched him various roles from other Telugu and Tamil film industries as well. His recent film Rathnan Prapancha (2021) released directly on Amazon Prime to mark his first film to be released on a digital platform. While he is donning multiple characters in his upcoming movies across different languages like Pushpa: The Rise - Part 1 (2021), he has also turned producer for his upcoming movies 'Badava Rascal' and Head Bush. He has also penned songs for some of his movies.