Avinash Shatamarshan

Timeline

1. Before filmsWorks in theatre in Mysuru and elsewhere, accumulating what HousePulse counts as more than 25 stage productions as an actor and director.
2. 2017Appears in the ensemble cast of Dayavittu Gamanisi, Rohit Padaki's satirical film, alongside Raghu Mukherjee, Sukrutha Wagle and Prakash Belawadi.
3. 2018Plays the lead in Kannadakkaagi Ondannu Otti, directed by Kushal Gowda, with Krishi Thapanda as the female lead and Chikkanna, Dattanna and Rangayana Raghu in support.
4. 2019Announces Sidewing, his first film as writer and director, a story built around a theatre director's life.
5. 2023HousePulse lists him among the cast of Hondisi Bareyiri, a Kannada romantic drama released in April.
6. 6 September 2026Enters Bigg Boss Kannada 13 as the third contestant of the season, on the launch night hosted by Kichcha Sudeepa.
7. 27 September 2026Evicted in a double elimination after receiving the lowest number of viewer votes, twenty days after entering.

Who Avinash Shatamarshan is

Avinash Shatamarshan is a Kannada actor who works in three registers at once: stage, screen and the writing desk. He has acted in films, directed theatre, and written and directed a film of his own. HousePulse describes him as an actor, theatre director, writer and filmmaker with experience across more than 25 stage productions, and that stage count is the part of the record that explains the rest of it.^[3]

His screen credits are not the long filmography of a star. He led one film, Kannadakkaagi Ondannu Otti in 2018, took an ensemble part in Dayavittu Gamanisi in 2017, and is listed by HousePulse among the cast of Hondisi Bareyiri in 2023.^[3][5][6] What makes him unusual is that the film he is proudest of is one he wrote and directed about the theatre he came from.^[2]

He is married to the actress Priya Shatamarshana, who is known for the Kannada film Bheema. She was on stage for his Bigg Boss exit and spoke about him there, which is where most of what the public knows about the marriage comes from.^[1]

Mysuru, theatre and the years before film

Avinash is from Mysuru, the city that gave Karnataka its most organised theatre culture outside Bengaluru. He does not come from a film family and the record does not describe a film school. His training was in theatre, in the repertory and amateur companies that stage Kannada plays through the year and tour them to smaller towns.^[3]

The stage work is the part of his career that gets the least coverage because Kannada theatre is poorly archived online. HousePulse's figure of more than 25 productions is the only number available, and it is a fan site's count rather than an official one.^[3] What the interviews do establish is that he thinks like a director: when he talks about acting he talks about what the audience sees from where they sit, and when he talks about theatre he talks about the side wing.^[2]

That vocabulary is not incidental. It is the reason a television reality show was always going to be an awkward fit, and it is the thing he reached for when he explained, after his eviction, why he could not play the game the way the house wanted.

Dayavittu Gamanisi and Kannadakkaagi Ondannu Otti

Dayavittu Gamanisi, released in 2017, was Rohit Padaki's directorial debut, a satirical film with an ensemble cast that included Raghu Mukherjee, Samyukta Hornad, Sukrutha Wagle, Vasishta N Simha, Prakash Belawadi, Rajesh Nataranga and Avinash Shatamarshan. The film was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Film in Kannada at the 65th edition, which gave everyone in the cast a calling card.^[6]

His first lead came the next year. Kannadakkaagi Ondannu Otti, translated as Dial One for Kannada, was released in 2018 and directed by Kushal Gowda. It starred Shatamarshan Avinash and Krishi Thapanda, with Chikkanna, Dattanna, Rangayana Raghu and Suchendra Prasad in support.^[5] A cast built around Rangayana Raghu and Dattanna is a cast built for theatre-trained actors, and the film sits in the small-budget Kannada middle ground that rarely travels outside the state.

Neither film made him a household name. What they did was establish him as an actor directors could cast in an ensemble without worrying about whether he could hold a scene, which is the kind of reputation that keeps a working actor employed for years without ever producing a headline.^[5][6]

Sidewing and the move to direction

In 2019 Avinash announced that he had written and would direct his first film, titled Sidewing. The subject was the theatre itself. He told the Times of India that the film follows a theatre director's life, and that the title comes from the place a director stands to watch a performance.^[2]

He was unusually direct about how much of it was true. In the same interview he put the mix at about half observation and half dramatisation: the world of theatre people would be recognisable, and the illusions that theatre people carry would be dramatised. He described it as a film that shows what theatre people are like when they enter the profession expecting to achieve everything.^[2]

A teaser for the film was released and songs from it circulated online, but no reliable source in this record gives a theatrical release date or a streaming release. HousePulse and BiggBoss Pulse both credit him with the film without dating it.^[3][4] That gap is noted in the section on what has not been confirmed rather than filled with a guess.

Bigg Boss Kannada 13: the third contestant in

The thirteenth season of Bigg Boss Kannada launched on 6 September 2026 on Colors Kannada and JioHotstar, with Kichcha Sudeepa hosting for the thirteenth consecutive year. The season carried an aviation theme, with the house built as an airport and contestants referred to as passengers.^[7]

Avinash entered as the third contestant of the season, after Jagadeesha MB and Soundarya Shetty according to the launch order recorded on Wikipedia.^[7] He was introduced as a theatre artist and actor, which is how the show framed him for an audience that knew him, if at all, from a 2018 film.^[1][3]

His run lasted twenty days. He was nominated three times, according to BiggBoss Pulse, and was one of the season's early exits rather than a contestant who built a following inside the house.^[4] In the third week he was the first of two contestants eliminated in a double eviction, leaving on the Saturday episode after polling the lowest number of votes.^[1]

The double eviction and what Sudeepa told him

The third week ended with a twist the season called the Emergency Exit. Thandav Ram had already been taken out of the house under that device earlier in the week, and the weekend brought a double elimination. Avinash went first, on the lowest vote count.^[1][8]

Sudeepa's comment on stage was careful. The Times of India reports that the host told Avinash that leaving did not mean he had played the game incorrectly, but that the platform requires certain things from a contestant.^[1] It is the standard formulation the show uses when someone has been competent and unpopular at the same time.

The second elimination that weekend came after a Bottom 3 task involving Asiya Firdose, Dhanush Manjunath and Vaishnavi. Vaishnavi went out, and the three wild card entries that followed changed the house's arithmetic.^[1] Avinash and Vaishnavi had both been described as weak contestants during the season, a label that stuck to both of them until the same weekend removed them.

The exit interview: why the format did not fit

Avinash gave a post-eviction interview to Cinema Express that is more useful than most exit statements because it is specific. He said he would definitely not watch Bigg Boss from then on, and explained that he has never had the habit of watching television as a viewer. He added that he had not watched his own serials and has rarely watched his own films more than once or twice.^[1]

He was equally direct about the house. He said he had not gone in after rehearsals, because rehearsals are for theatre plays and not for being real, and that he cannot alter his nature. He described contestants who do not follow rules, speak foully, show zero respect to anyone and steal food, and asked how one lives among such people. He said he did not connect with or like anyone in the house, while insisting that he holds immense respect for the Bigg Boss platform itself.^[1]

The most telling line is the one about adjustment. He said he went in as himself and was not willing to make artificial adjustments, which is a strange thing to hear from a man whose profession is performance. Theatre actors are trained to inhabit a role, but a reality show asks for the opposite: a stable, camera-friendly version of the self, sustained for weeks. He appears to have understood the difference and refused to make the trade.^[1]

Priya Shatamarshana and the exit on stage

His wife, the actress Priya Shatamarshana, was on stage for the exit. Cinema Express reports that she turned emotional and recited lines from the saint Shishunala Sharif's philosophical composition Taravalla Tagi Ninna Tamboori, and said that the strategic and manipulative mechanics of the game simply did not align with her husband's worldview.^[1]

Priya is known for the Kannada film Bheema. The couple's public appearances together are limited, and neither has given an interview about the marriage itself, so the exit episode is the main record of how they present the relationship.^[1]

Sudeepa's assessment on the same stage, that Avinash's personality was fundamentally unsuited to a show of this nature, was one the actor accepted.^[1] That acceptance is unusual in itself. Most evicted contestants argue that they were misunderstood or badly edited; he agreed with the diagnosis and explained why he would not change.

After the house

No reliable source in this record describes what Avinash has taken up since the eviction. His film Sidewing remains the largest unfinished item in his career, and the exit interview does not mention a new project.^[1][2]

What the record does show is a working actor with a stage base, one lead film, a directorial credit and a television appearance that lasted three weeks. That is a normal career for a Kannada actor who came up through theatre, and it is the reason his Bigg Boss stint reads as an interruption rather than a turning point.

What has not been confirmed

His date of birth and age are not published in any source used here. HousePulse lists a hometown and an occupation but no birth date, and no interview gives one.^[3]

Theatre credits cannot be checked. The figure of more than 25 productions comes from HousePulse, a fan site, and no Kannada theatre archive lists his roles or the companies he worked with.^[3] The claim is plausible for someone of his background but it is not independently verified here.

Sidewing has no confirmed release. A teaser and songs exist, and the Times of India reported the project in 2019, but no source gives a release date, a censor certificate or a streaming listing.^[2] It should not be described as a released film on the strength of the current record.

His credit in Hondisi Bareyiri rests on HousePulse and BiggBoss Pulse.^[3][4] The film's Wikipedia cast list does not name him, which may mean the part is small and uncredited in the summary, or that the fan sites have attached the film to him in error. The film is listed here with attribution rather than as a settled fact.

Finally, the reason for his low vote count is not documented. The Times of India says he polled the lowest number of votes and that he had been called weak inside the house, but no source gives the vote share or the margin.^[1]