Venkatesh

Film runs in the family for Daggubati Venkatesh. Born on 13 December 1960, he is the son of film producer and former Member of Parliament D. Ramanaidu, and his elder brother Suresh Babu runs Suresh Productions, which Venkatesh co-owns. The actor and producer, whose career has centred on Telugu cinema, studied commerce at Loyola College, Chennai, and took an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in the US. A child role in Prema Nagar (1971) came well before his debut as a lead in K. Raghavendra Rao's Kaliyuga Pandavulu (1986), which won him a Nandi Special Jury Award. Hits such as Srinivasa Kalyanam, Brahma Puthrudu, Prema, Bobbili Raja and Kshana Kshanam made him a star, and K. Viswanath's Swarnakamalam (1988) was screened in the Indian Panorama at IFFI. He has moved between romantic dramas like Preminchukundam Raa and Nuvvu Naaku Nachav, family dramas such as Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, the crime thrillers Drushyam and Drushyam 2, and comedies from F2 to Sankranthiki Vasthunam (2025). In Hindi he has done Anari, Taqdeerwala and Rana Naidu (2023). He has won six Filmfare Awards and five Nandi Awards, and he mentors the Telugu Warriors team in the Celebrity Cricket League. He is set to lead the upcoming Telugu film January 12 Vidudala (2027), in which Keerthy Suresh plays Latha Reddy.