rao began his career as an actor in theatre, performing in plays written in the kannada language at the age of eight. as a child, he portrayed mythological female characters such as sita, chandramathi and desdemona. he then switched to male roles, his work proving popular in the erstwhile kingdom of mysore and the non-kannada speaking madras presidency. in theatre, he worked with a. v. varadacharya's ratnavali drama company and chamundeshwari company, in mysore.