Mahesh Babu 3

Acting career

Further information: Mahesh Babu filmography

Early career and breakthrough (1979–2003)

At the age of four, Mahesh visited the sets of the Telugu film Needa (1979) where its director Dasari Narayana Rao shot a few sequences of his as a part of the narrative in the presence of the former's brother Ramesh. Needa marked his debut as an child actor.^[9] During the shoot of Poratam (1983) at Vauhini Studios, after watching Mahesh on the sets director Kodi Ramakrishna suggested to Krishna that he cast Mahesh in the role of the protagonist's brother. Initially terrified, Mahesh agreed to act in the film after being persuaded by the film's crew.^[9] He went on to act as a child artist in the films Sankharavam (1987), Bazaar Rowdy (1988), Mugguru Kodukulu (1988) and Gudachari 117 (1989). He played a dual role in the film Koduku Diddina Kapuram (1989). After Mahesh completed working on the 1990 Telugu films Bala Chandrudu and Anna Tammudu, Krishna asked him to stop acting and concentrate on his studies.^[10]

In 1999, Mahesh made his debut as a lead actor with the film Raja Kumarudu, directed by K. Raghavendra Rao and co-starring Priety Zinta. The film was commercially successful, and people began referring to him with the title Prince.^[11] He received the Nandi Award for Best Male Debut.^[12] He starred in two films the following year – Yuvarajuand Vamsi. Following their poor performance at the box office, Mahesh starred in Krishna Vamsi's Murari the next year. Mahesh called Murari an important film in his career and the role he played in it one of his favourites.^[13][14] Murari was a commercial success and earned him the Nandi Special Jury Award.^[12] Though his 2002 releases Takkari Dongaand Bobby performed poorly at the box office, Mahesh received his second Nandi Special Jury Award for his performance in the former.^[12]

Mahesh had two film releases in 2003, the first one being Gunasekhar's Okkadu co-starring Bhumika Chawla, which went on to become the highest grossing Telugu film of the year.^[15] He won his first Filmfare award for best Telugu actor for his performance in the film.^[16] The other release was Teja's Nijam co-starring Rakshita. The film was noted for introducing Dolby EX surround system in Telugu cinema.^[17] Though the film was a commercial failure,^[18] Mahesh received praise from the critics for his performance in the film, with Vijayalaxmi of Rediff.com calling him the only reason to watch the film's second half which she termed a routine tale of vendetta.^[19] Mahesh won his first Nandi Best Actor Award for his performance in the film.^[20]