Harish began his acting career as a child actor, a unique distinction as he is the only male child actor to have worked in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam films. He went on to play leading roles in numerous films, accumulating a total of 280 film credits to his name.
Harish's impressive career was recognized with several awards, including the state award for the best child actor of the year 1983 for his role in the film Andhra Kesari, presented by the Chief Minister Late N. T. Rama Rao. He also received a special jury award as the best actor in 1996 for his role in the film Oho Naa Pellanta, produced by D.Ramanaidu and directed by Jandhyala.
Harish made his debut as a lead actor at a remarkably young age of 15. His first film as a lead actor was the Malayalam film Daisy, directed by Prathap K. Pothan, which also starred Kamal Hassan. In Tamil, he was introduced as a lead by T. Rajendar in the film Pookal Vidum Thudel, directed by Sridhar Rajan. In Telugu, he was introduced as a lead actor by producer D. Ramanaidu in the film Prema Khaidi in 1990, opposite Malashree.
The success of Prema Khaidi led Ramanaidu to re-make the film in Hindi, with Harish as the lead and Karisma Kapoor as the female lead opposite Harish in the film Prem Qaidi in 1991, which also did well at the box office.
Harish has two younger siblings, a brother, and a sister, who also worked as child actors in films, although their names are not publicly available. He has three children, a son named Sagar Rao, who is a Legal Associate/Criminal Advocate at JSPK Legal, and two daughters, one of whom is training to be a singer, and another young son named Shivam.
In a 1995 interview available on YouTube, Harish stated he was 27 years old at the time, which would place his date of birth between 1968 and 1969, contradicting the 1975 birthdate listed on other websites. He also revealed that he began working in black and white films at the age of 5, a fact that remains a mystery as the titles of these films have become impossible to find.
