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Mahesh Babu is an Indian actor and producer known for his work in Telugu cinema. He first appeared in the 1979 film Needa when he was four years old. [1] He continued to perform as a child actor in several films, most of which featured his father Krishna. [2] Following his role as the titular protagonist in Balachandrudu (1990) while still a child, his career went on hiatus so he could concentrate on his education until taking on his first lead role as an adult in the 1999 film Rajakumarudu , for which he won the Nandi Award for Best Male Debut. [3] [4] Afterwards, his career stagnated until successes like Murari (2001), Okkadu (2003) and Athadu (2005) brought him fame. [2] [5] In 2006, he played a gangster in the Puri Jagannadh-directed action-thriller Pokiri . The film became the highest-grossing Telugu film of all time, [6] [7] and according to Vogue India , cemented Babu's reputation as a "superstar". [8]
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In the wake of the failures of Sainikudu (2006) and Athidhi (2007), Babu took a long-term break from cinema for personal reasons. [8] [9] His next project, the fantasy action film Khaleja , was released in 2010 after significant delays. [10] In 2011, he starred in Dookudu , which became the first Telugu film to gross over ₹ 1 billion. [11] Businessman (2012), his next film, was well received and became one of the year's highest grossing Telugu films at a time that was particularly harsh on other big-budget productions. [12] [13] The following year, Babu co-starred alongside Venkatesh in the critically and commercially acclaimed drama film Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu , [14] which was considered the first Telugu multi-starrer in decades. [15] [16] He then featured in Sukumar's 2014 psychological thriller film 1: Nenokkadine . [17] Although Babu's performance as a schizophrenic rock star was lauded by critics, the film itself received mixed reviews and failed to recover its budget. [18] [19] Aagadu , his next release that year, suffered a similar fate, [20] [21] despite the film's opening gross being his highest at the time. [22]
His 2015 action-drama Srimanthudu was a commercial success and earned Babu his fifth Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu as well as his eighth Nandi Award in any category, the most by any individual. [23] [24] [25] The film was also his first as a producer. [26] His subsequent film Brahmotsavam (2016) and his first bilingual film Spyder (2017) under-performed at the box office. [27] [28] The actor's next role was as an inexperienced chief minister in Koratala Siva's Bharat Ane Nenu (2018). [29] The film was the year's second highest-grossing Telugu production and critics praised Babu's performance. [30] [8] His following two films, Vamshi Paidipally's action-drama Maharshi (2019) and Anil Ravipudi's action-comedy Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020), also made substantial profits despite receiving less favourable reception. [31] [32] [33] Babu's 2022 film Sarkaru Vaari Paata also received a mixed response, however, his performance was appreciated by critics. [34] In 2024, Babu reunited with Trivikram Srinivas for their third collaboration in the film Guntur Kaaram . [35] IN 2025, Babu began filming Varanasi , his maiden collaboration with director S. S. Rajamouli.