Venkatesh Daggubati

Daggubati Venkatesh is an Indian film actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. In a career spanning twenty nine years, he starred in seventy two feature films. He has played a variety of roles in Telugu cinema and a few Bollywood films.[1] He has received seven state Nandi Awards, and five Filmfare Awards for best acting.

Along with his brother Daggubati Suresh Babu, Venkatesh is the co-owner of Suresh Productions, one of the largest film production companies in India. Venkatesh has starred in several of his films under this production. In a career spanning three decades, he had many super hit films. His films like Bobbili Raja, Chanti, Preminchukundam Raa, Raja, Kalisundam Raa, Nuvvu Naaku Nachav, Lakshmi, Adavari Matalaku Ardhale Verule etc. turned out to be blockbusters, thus establishing him as a leading actor of Telugu cinema. He has the highest number of Nandi awards for best actor, he has won 5 of them. Owing to his popularity and success, he is widely known as Victory Venkatesh in the media.[2] Apart from films, he is the Captain of Telugu Warriors representing Tollywood in Celebrity Cricket League.[3][4]

Venkatesh was born to prolific film producer and former MP, Ramanaidu Daggubati and Rajeshwari in Karamchedu village of Prakasam District. He has an elder brother Suresh Babu Daggubati who runs Suresh Productions, and a younger sister, Lakshmi. Venkatesh did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai. He graduated with a Bachelors in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai and got his MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA[5] After his return to India, he wanted to get into film production but instead, became an actor in Telugu films.[6]

He has acted as child artist in the 1971 film Prem Nagar. He debuted in Kaliyuga Pandavulu in the year 1986, which got him a Nandi Award for best male debut actor. At an early phase in his career, Venkatesh acted in Swarnakamalam, directed by K Viswanath, which was showcased at the 1989 International Film Festival of India, the film fetched him his second Nandi Award for his performance. In 1988, He then appeared in the successful musical romance film Prema, which fetched him a Nandi Award for best acting & the same year another blockbuster box office hit film Brahma Putrudu & this film he won a Filmfare Award for best actor. Bobbili Raja, with Divya Bharti, was a box office hit.