Mahesh Babu (born
Mahesh Ghattamaneni on 9 August 1975)
[citation needed] is an
Indian film actor known for his work in
Telugu cinema. Born to actor
Krishna in the Ghattamaneni family, Mahesh Babu faced the camera at the age of four as a child artist in 1979's
Needa. His first leading role was in the film
Rajakumarudu, which was released in August 1999.
[1]
In 2001 he starred in
Murari a Telugu supernatural thriller film. In 2002 he starred in
Takkari Donga. In 2003 he starred in the movie
Nijam.
He played a young
Kabaddi player in the 2003 film
Okkadu, one of the biggest Telugu grossers of the time. He received international recognition with the 2005 film
Athadu. The film was dubbed into Polish for a release in Poland as
Poszukiwany, becoming the first Telugu film released in Poland, and became a boxoffice hit.
[2][3] His film
Okkadu collected a share of 23 crores at the Boxoffice.
[4]
In 2006 he starred in
Pokiri, premiered at the
7th IIFA Awards held in Dubai. The blockbuster film was subsequently remade into Tamil, Hindi and Kannada. The film was also one of the fourteen southern Indian films to be screened at the
International Indian Film Academy Awards Film festival in 2006.
Pokiri collected a share of 48 crores at the Boxoffice.
[5]His film
Pokiri was declared as an Industry Hit at the boxoffice. This film was also dubbed into polish along with
Athadu which helped him to gain significant following in that region.
[6]
In 2010, he starred in the film
khaleja.
[7] His performance in
Khaleja was critically praised as one of his best performances.
In 2011, he starred in
Dookudu, which had the largest worldwide opening for a Telugu film. It became the first Telugu film to reach a gross of more than
₹ 1 billion at the time, excluding the dubbed versions. Subsequently, the
Los Angeles Times quoted it as "the biggest hit you've never heard of".
[8] The film collected a share of 56 crores at the boxoffice.
[9]
In 2015 his film
Srimanthudu collected a gross of 175 crores in 50 days.
[13] The film was declared as the second highest grossing film in terms of both share and gross at the Tollywood box-office. This film was the first Indian movie to have premiere in
Chile.