Prabhas

Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju ( born 23 October 1979) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Telugu Cinema.

Prabhas made his acting debut with the 2002 drama Eeswar, and later attained his breakthrough with the action romance Varsham (2004).

Prabhas started his film career with Eeswar (2002).

In 2003, he was the lead in Raghavendra.

In 2004, he appeared in Varsham and Adavi Raamudu.

He received his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu for his performance in the former.

His notable works include Chatrapathi (2005), Bujjigadu (2008), Billa (2009), Darling (2010), Mr. Perfect (2011), and Mirchi (2013), winning the Nandi Award for Best Actor for his performance in the lattermost.

In 2005, he appeared in Chakram and in the film Chatrapathi, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, in which he portrays the role of a refugee, exploited by goons.

It had a 100-day run in 54 centers.

Idlebrain.com stated that he had a unique style and macho charm in his screen presence.

Chatrapathi earned him his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu.

Later, he starred in the dance drama Pournami (2006), the action film Yogi (2007) and the action drama Munna (2007).

This was followed by the action-comedy Bujjigadu in 2008.

In 2009, his two films were Billa and Ek Niranjan.

Indiaglitz called Billa "stylish and visually rich".

Ek Niranjan earned him his third nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu.

In 2010, he appeared in the romantic comedy Darling which received positive reviews upon release.

The Times of India gave a 2.5 star rating explaining "Director Karunakaran extracts good performances from his actors, but can't come up with a refreshing plot. It looks like the director hasn't really come out of his Tholi Prema hangover as he dishes out yet another one-sided love saga but fails to come up with a valid and logical reason to make a GenZ lad to hold back his feelings for his lover until the last moment. However, he compensates it all, by adding loads of fun moments in the film and the screenplay does have its share of some touching moments."

In 2011, he appeared in another romantic comedy Mr. Perfect.

The review site GreatAndhra rated the film with three stars and noted "The film comes across as a clean, family entertainer and the intention of the makers must be appreciated. His performance in the film earned him his fourth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu.

In 2012, Prabhas starred in Rebel, an action film directed by Raghava Lawrence.

Sashidhar from The Times of India stated, "The film belongs to hard-core Prabhas fans as the movie is stylish and visually rich but not much in content".

Purnima Ranawat from NDTV said, "Rebel serves up fare for the mass audience. The film will be definitely liked by Prabhas' fans. Watch it for the dancing talent of Tamannaah Bhatia and action skills of Prabhas."

Radhika Rajamani from Rediff.com gave the movie 1.5 stars out of five and said, "Working with hardly any storyline, director Raghava Lawrence had made a film that is arduous to watch... Rebel is a movie for the masses and certainly not for the discerning audience."

One of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema, Prabhas has featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2015 and has received seven Filmfare Awards nominations, a Nandi Award, and a SIIMA Award.

Prabhas is referred to in the media as the "Rebel Star" and "Darling".

In 2015, Prabhas portrayed the title role in S. S. Rajamouli's action film Baahubali: The Beginning and reprised his role in its sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017).

The latter emerged as the second-highest-grossing Indian film at that point, establishing him as the first pan-Indian star.

Commercial success has since varied, with the action thrillers Saaho (2019) and Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire (2023) emerging among his biggest grossers.

Prabhas is the first Indian actor ever to have four ₹100+ crore opening films worldwide, a feat unheard of in Indian cinema.

He is also the only South Indian actor to have five films that crossed the ₹100 crore mark in the Hindi market.

He is the first South Indian actor to receive a wax sculpture at Madame Tussaud's wax museum.

Prabhas was born into a Telugu-speaking family to film producer Uppalapati Surya Narayana Raju and Siva Kumari in Madras, Tamil Nadu.

The youngest of three children, he has an elder brother, Prabodh, and elder sister, Pragathi.

He is the nephew of Telugu film actor Krishnam Raju.

His family hails from Mogalthur, near Bhimavaram of West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh.

Prabhas did his schooling at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai, and at DNR High School, Bhimavaram.

He then completed his intermediate education from Nalanda College, Hyderabad.

He later went on to pursue Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) from Sri Chaitanya College, Hyderabad.

He is also an alumnus of Satyanand Film Institute, Visakhapatnam.