Birthday Special: 5 remarkable performances of veteran actor Chiranjeevi

Veteran actor Chiranjeevi needs no introduction. He is among the most successful stars of Indian cinema and had worked in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi films. Chiranjeevi debuted as an actor in the Telugu film Punadhirallu in 1978.

He got the Raghupathi Venkaiah, the top film honour in Andhra Pradesh, three Nandi Awards, and nine Filmfare Awards South, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006. In 2022, he was awarded the IFFI Indian Film Personality of the Year Award at the 53rd IFFI.

Chiranjeevi was born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad Rao on August 22, 1955, in Mogalthur, a village in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari region. As he celebrates his birthday tomorrow, let us look at some of his remarkable performances.

Vijetha (1985)

Vijetha is a 1985 Telugu film directed by A Kodandarami Reddy and produced by Allu Aravind, starring Chiranjeevi, Bhanupriya, and J V Somayajulu. It was a remake of the 1981 Bengali film Saheb, which had previously been remade in Hindi as Saaheb (1985) starring Anil Kapoor. The film was also dubbed in Tamil and it was titled ‘Dharma Prabhu’. Chiranjeevi received his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for his work in the film.

Indra (2002)

B Gopal's directorial action-drama film that was released in 2022 became the highest-grossing Telugu film of its time. It features Chiranjeevi, Sonali Bendre, and Aarthi Agarwal, while Sivaji, Mukesh Rishi, and Prakash Raj play supporting roles with music composed by Mani Sharma. The film won three state Nandi Awards and two Filmfare Awards South with Chiranjeevi winning both the Nandi Award for Best Actor and Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu. The dialogues and certain scenes create an indelible visual imprint on the spectator and it showed how talented the actor is.

Rudraveena (1988)

The 1988 Telugu film was directed by K Balachander. It starred Chiranjeevi and Shobana alongside Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan. Ilaiyaraaja composed the soundtrack and background score. The film was loved for its music and received three National Film Awards: Best Feature Film on National Integration, Best Music Direction, and Best Male Playback Singer (for S P Balasubrahmanyam). It also won four Nandi Awards, including a Special Jury award for Chiranjeevi.

Shankar Dada M.B.B.S. (2004)

It was a comedy-drama that was a remake of the 2003 Hindi film Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. It was directed by Jayanth C Paranjee featuring Chiranjeevi, Sonali Bendre, Srikanth, Girish Karnad, and Paresh Rawal. The movie was commercially successful and the audience loved watching Chiranjeevi and Sonali Bendre on-screen. Chiranjeevi and Srikanth both won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Telugu awards respectively at South Filmfare Awards in 2005.

Gharana Mogodu (1992)

K Raghavendra Rao's directorial Telugu romantic drama was a remake of the 1986 Kannada film Anuraga Aralithustarring. It features Chiranjeevi and Nagma and was a blockbuster which made him the highest-paid actor. The film was screened at the 1993 International Film Festival of India in the mainstream section.

The actor was recently seen in the action entertainer film Bholaa Shankar. Helmed by Meher Ramesh, the film is a remake of the 2015 Tamil hit Vedhalam. The film also stars Tamannaah Bhatia and Keerthy Suresh.