Chiranjeevi - Telugu's supreme megastar

Chiranjeevi, the Mega star of Tollywood, was born on 22nd August of 1955 in Mogalturu, a small village in West Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh to Sri Venkat Rao and Anjana Devi. Siva Sankara Vara Prasad Konidela is also known as Chiranjeevi. He is married to his now wife Konidela Surekha on February 20, 1980 and is blessed with two daughters Susmita and Sirija, and one son Ram Charan Teja. His brothers Nagendra Babu and Pawan Kalyan are both into movies. Nagendra Babu is an actor and a successful producer while his second brother Pawan Kalyan has turned up as a successful actor in a very short span. His Brother in law Allu Aravind is a producer and his father-in-law is a veteran actor is Allu Ramalingaiah.

Vara Prasad did his schooling in Nidadavolu, Gurajala, Ponnuru, Mangalagiri and Mogalturu. He also won first prize for his first performance as Parandamayya Panthulu. After high school, Vara Prasad joined Bi.P.C in PR Sharma Jr. College at Ongole. Following that he finished his B.Com from Narasapa College. After graduation, Vara Prasad moved to Madras Film Institute to seek a career in films. To get himself ready for the camera, he joined in a film institute in 1977.

His first public performance was in a government parade ballet at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 1976. Vara Prasad was offered the lead role in the film Punaadi Raallu, produced by Sheikh Abdul Khadir in the direction of Raj Kumar, which has laid the foundation stone to the acting career of Vara Prasad as Chiranjeevi in 1978 which was his debut. His second movie to release was Manavuri Pandavulu from which Chiranjeevi started gaining recognition as hero among the Telugu Film fans. His success came up with a negative role in the film Intilo Ramayya Vidhilo Krishnayya, which was released in the year 1981.

Films like Kothala Raayudu, Punnami Naagu, Mogudu Kaavali, Kiraayi Rowdeelu, Subhalekha, Maga Maharaju, Intlo Raamayya - Veedhilo Krishnayya, etc are the super-hits in the first phase of his career. Khaidi, released in 1983, gave Chiranjeevi a thrusting progress towards a commercial career. His fights and dance movements in this film are still a rage among the movie lovers.The film Pasivadi Pranam, in 1987, gave Chiranjeevi super stardom. New style of dances were introduced.

In the same year he acted in Swayam Krushi in the direction of Kalatapasvi K. Viswanath and won Nandi Award for his performance. Chiru became a supreme hero with Yamudiki Mogudu. The title Megastar was used for the first time while publicizing KS Rama Rao's movie Marana Mrudangam, which released in August 1988. In the same year was released Rudraveena directed by K Balachander, which bagged the Nargis Dutt Award.

The first half of 90's decade peaked Chiranjeevi's career graph to soaring heights for every movie like Kodama Simham, Gharana Mogudu, Hitler. Then his hits where Indra in 2002, Tagore in 2003, Shankardada MBBS in 2004, Andarivadu in 2005, Jai Chiranjeeva 2005, Style in 2006, Shankar Dada Zindabad in 2007.He is well acclaimed by Bollywood for his films Prathibandh, Aaj ka Goondaraj.

AP Government Nandi Awards for Swayankrushi 1987 and Apatbandhavudu 1992. Chiranjeevi won the Best Actor Southern Filmfare Award for seven years. In January 2006, Mr. Chiranjeevi was honoured with the Padma Bhushan. In November 2006 Chiranjeevi was awarded with a honorary doctorate by Andhra University for his Telugu Film Industry and for his social work. With his son Ram Charan Tej's entry into the Telugu film industry .On October 2, 1998, he founded the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust is the state's largest recipient of Eye and Blood Donations. Megastar Chiranjeevi assists people for medical expenses in genuine cases.

Throughout his career he has been through a lot of ups and downs but every time he came back with extra perseverance and won his way through people's hearts with wonderful performances in his films. Chiranjeevi completes 29 years of his career in films and hopes to get to act in more films.

Wish Chiru a Happy Birthday