Discontinuing his studies, Surender Reddy worked almost for 9 years with director T.Prabhakar. He joined director T. Prabhakar for the film - Jai Bhajaranga Bhali as an assistant. After assisting another film for him, Surrender Reddy joined director-producer Kranthi Kumar and worked for him for five films - Paduta Tiyyaga, Subba Raju Gari Kutumbam, Preminchedi Endukamma, Arundhati and 9 Nelalu. His last film as associate was Neeto with Raghavender Rao’s son, Surya Prakash as hero.
Finally Surrender Reddy donned the megaphone in 2004 with Athanokkade starring Nandamuri Kalyan Ram. The film which released in summer 2005 went on to become a smashing hit. The movie is still the biggest hit in Kalyan Ram’s career. Surender Reddy even went to win Nandi Award as Best Debut director that year.
Surender Reddy got the golden chance of directing Kalyan Ram’s brother, Junior NTR. The film ‘Ashok’ was decent in content and Surender Reddy’s stylish taking was appreciated by one and all. However the movie ended up just an average.
In 2007, Surender Reddy bagged one more prestigious project, Athidhi starring Mahesh Babu. The movie had seen entry of Bollywood giant, UTV Motion Pictures in to Telugu. It also had Bollywood beauty Amrita Rao making her Telugu debut. The movie carried tremendous hype and expectations but bombed miserably at the box office. The movie which was the biggest budget film ever made in Telugu ended up as biggest flop of all time.
Athidhi’s failure pegged back Surender Reddy’s career a bit. He got a 2 year gap and came back with Ravi Teja’s Kick in 2009. Surender Reddy rightly exploited all the strengths of Ravi Teja and the result is a biggest hit in Ravi Teja’s career then.
After a brief gap, Surender Reddy again teamed up with his second film hero, NTR with Oosaravelli. He gave a new dimension to NTR as an actor is terms of styling etc. The movie ended up as an average. His most recent film, Race Gurram starring Allu Arjun is a super commercial hit.