Personal Info:
Name: Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad
Nick Name: Chiru, Mega Star, Angry Young man, Supreme Hero
Date of Birth: August 22, 1955
Birth Place: Narasapur, Andhra Pradesh
Profession: Actor, Producer, Politician, Philanthropist
Height: 5’7“
Biography:
Chiranjeevi is an Indian Tollywood actor and a Politician popularly known. His actual name is Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad. He was an MP of Rajya Sabha and Minister of Tourism, Government of India from October 2012 to 15 May 2014. He is the only actor in the Tollywood to receive seven-film fare best actor awards. He founded a political party named Praja Rajyam.
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| Chiranjeevi and His Star Family |
Early Life and Personal Life:
He is the son of Late Sri Venkat Rao and Smt Anjana Devi. He is born in Mogallturu town on the Banks of River Godavari in the West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. His father worked as a constable and move from one place to another due to transfers on a regular basis. So he spent his childhood in his native place with his grandparents. He did his schooling in Nidadavolu, Gurajala, Bapatla, Ponnuru, Mangalagiri, and Mogalturu. Being NCC Cadet he participated in the Republic Day parade held in New Delhi in early ’70s. He completed his intermediate from C.S.R.Sarma College in Ongole. Graduated with a degree in Commerce from Sri Y N College at Narsapur. He was much interested in acting since his childhood hence moved to Chennai and joined Madras Film institute in the year 1976.
He married Surekha in the year 1980, February 20. Surekha is the daughter of the Telugu Comedian-actor Allu Ramalingaiah. He has one son Ram Charan Tej who is also a Tollywood actor and two daughters Sushmita and Srija. He has two younger brothers one is Nagendra Babu who is a producer and acted in several Tollywood films. Another brother is Pawan Kalyan who is also a Tollywood actor and the founder of the political party Jana Sena. Allu Aravind is his brother-in-law who is a film producer. Allu Arjun, Allu Sirish, Varun Tej, and Sai Dharam Tej are the other Tollywood actors related to Chiranjeevi’s family.
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| Chiranjeevi father Venkat Rao and Mother Anjana Devi |
Career:
Vara Prasad started his film career with Punadhirallu but his first released film was Pranam Khareedu. He got recognition from Telugu Audience from the film Mana Vuri Pandavulu directed by Sri Bapu Garu. He also played an anti-hero role in the movies I Love You, Idi Katha Kadhu starring Kamal Hasan, and a small role in Tayaramma Bangarayya.
His first portrayed film was in Tamil named Avargal which is a remake of Tamil film lead character played by Rajini Kanth. In 1979 his career was into success path with eight major films and the following year he got 14 major with leading roles. Also a lead antagonist in movies such as Mosagadu, Rani Kasula Rangamma, 47 Natkal / 47 rojulu, Nyayam Kavali, Ranuva Veeran.
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| Chiranjeevi and his Family |
He got major leading roles since 1982. Intlo Ramayya Veedilo Krishnayya was a box office hit at that time directed by Kodi Ramakrishna. Subhalkeha movie was a superb one with great thoughts which dealt with a social malady of the Dowry system and got many appraisals. He got his first film fare award as the best actor with that movie and director K.Viswanath Garu received his third film fare award as the best director for that movie. He performed roles in movies such as Idi Pellantara, Sitadevi, Tingu Rangadu, Bandhalu Anubandhalu, Mondi Ghatam, Manchu Pallaki, etc. He also performed in the multi starrer movies like Patnam Vachina Pathivrathalu, Billa Ranga.
In 1983, Khaidi was a big hit of the box office with which he attained stardom in the Tollywood. Mantri Gari Viyyankudu, Sangharshana, Goonda, Challenge, Hero, Donga, Jwala, Adavi Donga, Kondaveeti Raja, Rakshasudu, Gang Leader, Rowdy Alludu, Yamudiki Mogudu, Donga Mogudu were a series of box office hits at that time which created hype. Vijetha released in the year 1985 was one of the milestones of his career for which he received his second Filmfare Award as the best actor. In the 1987 Swayam Krushi film brought him the first Nandi Award, directed by K.Viswanath Garu.
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| Chiranjeevi Family Unseen Pic |
Pasivadi Pranam in the year 1987, Yamudiki Mogudu in 1988, Manchi Donga in 1988 were some hits of his career. In 1988, he co-produced and acted in the movie Rudra veena which brought him many awards like Nargis Dutt Award for the Best feature film on National Integration, Nandi Special Jury Award. Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari was an experimental movie directed by K.Raghavendra Rao Garu and directed by Ashwini Dutt Garu. Kondaveeti Donga, first Telugu film on 70mm 6-track stereophonic sound and Kodamasimham were also two different experiments done by him. Gang Leader was a social issue related action film released in the year 1991 which brought him the name “Boss of Telugu Cinema”.
He also performed in the Bollywood as well. Prathibandhan in the year 1990 and Aaj Ka Goonda Raj got many appreciations from the audience. In the Kannada movie Sipaayi, he appeared in the guest role. He received his second Nandi Award and third film fare award as the best actor for his movie Aapadhbhandhavudu directed by K.Viswanath Garu in the year 1992. He saw his career dips in the mid’s of 1990 with duds in the box office such as Mechanic Alludu, S.P.Parasuram, Big Boss, and Rikshavodu. With a hit of Mutha Mestri, he pulled his fourth film fare award as the Best Actor. Mugguru Monagallu and Alluda Majaka were an average success rate movies.
Chiranjeevi bounced back with his movie Hitler, Master, Bavagaru Bagunnara, Choodalani Undi, Sneham Kosam, etc. He received his fifth film fare award as the best actor for the movie Sneham Kosam. Dushan Garsi being producer Rameshkrishna Murthy directed a film in a Hollywood with Chiranjeevi in a leading role and the Telugu version of it was directed by Suresh Krishna and named it “The Return of the Thief of Baghdad”. But couldn’t release due to some undisclosed reasons.
After many gaps, he started again with Annayya. In 2002 Indra was the biggest blockbuster which broke all his previous records of the Tollywood and brought him a third Nandi Award for Best Actor and Sixth Filmfare Award as the Best Actor. Since then in every movie he appeared with an underlying social cause includes Tagore, Shankar Dada MBBS, Stalin, etc. For Shankar Dada MBBS he won the seventh and the latest Filmfare Award for Best Actor. He also awarded the Filmfare Special Award- South in the year 2006. For his contribution towards the film industry, he received a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award-south at 58th Filmfare Awards South in the year 2011. In 2007, Shankar Dada Zindabad which was part 2 of Shankar Dada MBBS couldn’t receive much response from the audience.
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| Chiranjeevi Daughter Srija Marriage Function |
He did not star in any movie for 10years in approximation due to much focus on the political career. During these 10 years, he only appeared in the two movies which were a cameo appearance in Maghadeera in 2009 and Bruce-Lee in 2015. For the movies Varudu and Rudrama Devi, he narrated the story.
From 2013, he was looking for the right script to come back into Cinema, and surprisingly it was his 150th movie too. It was in the year 2014, it was a big hit movie named Kaththi in Tamil and he wished to remake it in Telugu as his comeback film. This movie was titled as Khaidi No.150 and directed by V.V.Vinayak released during Sankranthi holidays in 2017. It was exactly six months less to complete the decade after the release of Shankar Dada Zindabad. It was a record-breaking box-office revenue and got many positive reviews. Critics praised him for his performance and appearance too mainly for the absence from Cinema for a decade.
His next upcoming movie will be a biopic on Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy directed by Surender Reddy and title given as Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy.
A career in Television:
Chiranjeevi hosted a Television Show Meelo Evaru Koteeswarulu fourth season. The first episode of this season was telecasted on 13 February 2017. This was a game show in the Telugu version of Kaun Banega Crorepati.
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| Chiranjeevi Brothers and Sisters |
Politics:
He started his political career in the year 2008 by establishing a party named Praja rajyam. He said that Social Justice was the main Agenda of this party. His party won 18 out of 295 seats in Andhra Pradesh State Assembly in 2009 general elections and elected as Member of State Assembly from Tirupathi. He contested from two places Tirupathi and Palakollu constituencies for MLA but won only from Tirupathi.
He decided to merge his party into the National Congress Party after two weeks of talks with Sonia Gandhi who was the president of Congress. It was a moment of fear with a no-confidence motion in the state assembly due to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party and Telangana agitation strength. He got nominated to Rajya Sabha after the merge of 1 year into Congress Party in the year 2012 March 29th. On April 3rd, 2012 he took oath as Rajya Sabha Member. He became an independent charge of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in the year 2012 October 28th.
In June 2014, Congress Party split the state of Andhra Pradesh with a very little revenue and a huge debt to the residuary state. Most of the members left Congress Party but Chiranjeevi however remained and started a campaign for Indian National Congress as a Chairman of the Election Campaign Committee for Assembly and Parliament elections in the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh in the year 2014. Critics said that he did not campaign wholeheartedly as the split of the state was decided by only one side.
At that moment only his younger brother Pawan Kalyan who was a former Prajarayam young wing leader launched his own party named Jana Sena. He campaigned most effectively against Indian National Congress and in favor of BJP and Telugu Desam Party. Due to the anti-Indian National Congress which was in a peak in Andhra Pradesh, candidates with 165 out of 175 lost deposits obtaining less than 10% share of the vote. From then since 2014 he is maintaining distance from active politics and ended his tenure as a Rajya Sabha Member in April 2018.
Social Service:
He founded Chiranjeevi Charitable trust in the year 1998 October 2nd which includes Eye Bank and Blood Bank. It is being very successful and one of the state’s largest recipient of eye and blood donations. Moreover, 70,000 blood donations and nearly 1900 eye donations were made through this CCT and it has fulfilled 90,000 blood requirements and gave eyesight to more than 1000 people in the state of Andhra Pradesh till. 350,000 people nearly pledged their eyes to CCT so far. This trust has won the “Best Voluntary Blood Bank Award” by the Andhra Pradesh State Government for the past 4 years. Chiranjeevi Charitable Foundation was inaugurated by Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam then the President of India, at Jubilee Hills Check Post in Hyderabad in the year 2006 on June 10. Now CCT has crossed more than 1 lakh mark in collecting blood and helped more than 96,000 people by this blood bank.
Due to some allegations made against these Banks, the State Government of Andhra Pradesh constituted a high-level committee to study these allegations. AP State AIDA Control Society guiding this project comprising experts from the finance and Technical side. They all verified all records related to the collection and disposal of blood samples, blood grouping, screening, sterilization, medical waste disposal, blood expiry, quality control, camps conducted, storeroom, a record room, and purchase of equipment.
Awards, Honors, and praises
K.Balachandar Director praised him saying he has both Kamal Hassan and Rajini Kanth in him. He received Padma Bhushan in the year 2006, the third-highest civilian honor in India. In the same year, he was awarded Honorary Doctorate by Andhra University. He stood as a ten-time winner of film fare Awards south and four-time Nandi Award Winner. International Face of Indian Cinema was awarded to him at the 3rd South Indian International Movie Awards in the year 2014 from Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. In the year 1987, he was invited to the Oscar Ceremony and he was the first actor fro, South to be invited.
Civilian Honor- Padma Bhushan from the government of India – 2006
Film Fare Awards
Best Actor Telugu-Shubhalekha- 1982
Best Actor Telugu-Vijetha-1985
Best Actor Telugu-Aapadhbhandhavudu- 1992
Best Actor Telugu-Muta Mesthri-1993
Best Actor Telugu– Sneham Kosam – 1999
Best Actor Telugu– Indra- 2002
Best Actor Telugu– Shankar Dada MBBS-2004
Special Award-South for Honorary Legendary acting career – 2006
Life Time Achievement Award– South- 2010
Nandi Awards
Best Actor– Swayam Krushi-1987
Best Actor– Aapathbhandhavudu- 1992
Best Actor– Indra- 2002
Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for his contribution to Telugu Cinema-2016
Cinema Express Awards
Best Actor– Swayam Krushi- 1988
SIIMA Awards
International Face of Indian Cinema-2014
Other honors
2006-Honorary of Doctorate from Andhra university
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