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Popularly Known As

Venkatesh

Birth NameDaggubati Venkatesh
Date of birth Dec 13th, 1960
Birth Place Chennai
Occupation Hero

""I am a big fan of Venkatesh garu.. I scored low marks in an year watching Bobbili Raja in a theater beside my school"."

Did You
know

Venkatesh first faced the camera as Child Artist in 1971 in Prem Nagar movie.

Overview

Son of Legendary Producer, Daggubati Rama Naidu, Venkatesh entered the film industry very easily but with his own hard work and dedication he scaled to the position of one of top heroes of the Telugu Cinema who carved a niche for himself. He is only of the very few star heroes who essayed the roles of all the kinds and appealed to audience both class and mass.

Personal Life:

Venkatesh was born on 13th December 1960 in Chennai to the legendary producer Dr. Ramanaidu Daggubati and Rajeshwari. His elder brother, Suresh Babu is a prominent producer and looks after his father’s Suresh Productions and distributions. He also has a sister, Lakshmi, who is younger to him.

Venkatesh completed his school education in Chennai and graduated in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. He later pursued MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies,USA.

He was married to Neeraja in 1985 and was blessed with four children; a son Arjun Ramnath and three daughters Bhavana, Aashritha and Hayavahini.

Filmy Career:

Venkatesh first faced the camera as Child Artist in 1971 in Prem Nagar movie. Once he returned from US after completing MBA, he wanted to become a producer but turned in to hero. His first movie, Kaliyuga Pandavulu got him Nandi award for best male debut actor. The early part of his career involved several performance oriented movies like K.Vishwanath’s Swarna Kamalam. The movie was screened at the 1989 International Film Festival of India and also fetched him his second Nandi award as Best Actor. His thirteenth movie, Prema was a big success at the box office and got him both Filmfare and Nandi awards that year.

Later on he began to play pakka mass entertainers like Bobili Raja, Coolie No.1, and Dharma Chakram which raked a moolah at the box office and made him dearer to masses. However, he did not totally change his track. He also acted in movies like Kshana Kshanam, Chanti and Chinnarayudu which were equally appreciated by family audience. However, Kshana Kshanam was successful at the box office only in its second run.

1996-2000: The 5 years can be termed as a golden phase in Venkatesh’s career. He delivered several classical films during this period which drove family and female audience mad. Pavitra Bandham, Preminchukundham Raa, Pelli Cheskundham, Surya Vamsham, Ganesh, Premante Idera, Raja, Seenu, Kalisundham Raa and Jayam Mandera were all big hits then which are also equally earned him top marks as an actor.

His dream run at the box office ended with the failures of Devi Putrudu and Prematho Rao in 2001. And from then, the actor who was well known for his consistency started to become wayward. There are mixed results all over for him – Nuvvu Naku Nachav (Super hit), Vasu (Flop), Gemini (Flop), Vasantham (Hit), Malliswari (Super Hit), Gharshana (Hit), Sankranthi (Average) and Subash Chandra Bose (Flop). When everyone started writing off Venkatesh after the failure of Subash Chandra Bose, he came back strongly with the successes of Lakshmi, Aaduvari Matalaku Ardhale Verule and Thulasi.

Bad Phase: As all the stars of his generation, Venkatesh began to feel the heat of new entrants in Tollywood after 2007. Chintakalaya Ravi was an average, Eenadu, Namo Venkatesa and Nagavalli ended up as failure. His Bodyguard which released for Sankranthi 2012 was a break even due to festive season advantage and he delivered a super hit for 2013 Sankranthi in the form of Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu. He also restarted the trend of multistarer movies as he teamed up with Mahesh Babu in the movie. He did a cameo experience in nephew’s film, Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum in the same year.

Return to form: The success of Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu was marred by back to back failures of Shadow and Masala. However, Venkatesh made a stunning comeback to form with Drishyam, a remake of Malayalam film with the same name. The film has Venkatesh playing a father of two girls. The movie went on to become a big hit and it is also the only
solo hit of Venkatesh after a long time. He later followed it by one more success, Gopala Gopala in which he teamed up with Pawan Kalyan for the first time.

Upcoming Films:

Yet to be announced.

Trivia:

Even though he studied in US and is a big star hero, Venkatesh is highly spiritual person.
The actor is a good player and is often seen in the cricket stadia for International Cricket matches. He also captains Tollywood team when playing Star Cricket and Celebrity Cricket League.
In 2010, he is signed with Manappuram General Finance and Leasing Ltd as their brand ambassador for Andhra Pradesh.
Venkatesh is mostly non controversial. But in a recent interview, yesteryear actress Roja revealed that she and Venky are not in talking terms due to certain on location issues.