Early career Rajesh initially worked as a typist in government offices. He was doing what Chi Udayashanker famous cinema writer was doing in the office. In the ledger books he would keep famous novels and read them. Chi Udayashanker was sent out from office for that. Even Rajesh had faced a similar situation. Later he formed the Shakti Nataka Mandali, staging many popular plays. One fine day he got up from the sleet and started writing a play on unemployment. It was titled ‘Nirudyogi Baalu’. The play he directed later. It got good appreciation. ‘Badavana Baalu’ was his next and it continued like that. Playwright Basheer asked him to act in plays and he was in Visha Sarpa, Nandadeepa, Chandrodaya and Kittur Rani Chennamma. Thackeray role was well received. His theatre performances eventually progressed to film roles. It was veteran director
Hunsur Krishnamurthy who introduced Vidyasagar in
Veera Sankalpa. He applied for 15 days leave from his job and went to Madras. While acting in this film he received an offer for ‘Sri Ramanjeneya Yuddha’. Rajakumar was Sri Rama and he was Bharatha, Udayakumar was Anjaneya. It was a successful film. While acting in his second film he received another offer from B R Panthulu for ‘Gange Gowri’. Rajkumar was ‘Shiva’ and he was ‘Maha Vishnu’. Rajesh then rejected the offer to star in ‘Jeevana Tharanga’ because of internal politicking. Rajesh did not act for two years after that. When Narayan Seth from Mumbai contacted him and took him to CV Shivashanker, he returned to acting. That was a new beginning. It was the film's producer
B.S. Narayan, Late Shri Suryanarayan Rao & Late J N Shetty who rechristened Vidyasagar as Rajesh and the film was ‘Namma Ooru'.
Namma Ooru (1968) directed by
C. V. Shivashankar became runaway hit. The song "Hogadhiri Sodarare" from the film made him popular. The then Finance Minister
Ramakrishna Hegde gave the film 100 per cent tax exemption. After that, Rajesh was flooded with offers. He had recently acted in Nanna Gopala, a children's film directed by Lakshman. Though he started a little late compared to
Udaykumar,
Rajkumar and
Kalyan Kumar, they were all contemporaries. In that competitive period, Rajesh stood strong for his terrific performance on the silver screen in Kannada cinema. He was not only good in acting but also in singing. ==Death==