6 Commoners who are popular on Telugu TV

Telugu television has introduced many talents to the showbiz world. Though film and television celebrities grab all the attention mostly, there is a rare sect of personalities from other walks of life who are extremely popular on TV.

Chaganti Koteswar Rao

He is one of the most popular Indian speakers known for his religious discourses on Sanathana Dharma and various Hindu epics. Despite being an employee in Food Corporation of India, Chaganti Koteswar Rao is popular for his pravanchans (discourses in Telugu) both onscreen and off-screen. The body of work of this “Pravachana Chakravarthi” includes various religious discourses across television and radio channels as well. It isn’t an exaggeration to say a majority wake up to his pravanchans daily in some or the other format.

This rationalist-cum-human rights activist recently shot to fame with his debates on various Telugu television channels. Few shows of Babu Gogineni where he took on other celebrities like Sri Reddy, Venu Swamy et al went viral on social media as well. His increased onscreen popularity amongst the youth gave rise to speculations about his participation in the forthcoming second season of Telugu reality show Bigg Boss. However, nothing has been confirmed yet.

Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju is a renowned naturopathy specialist who got popular for his early morning shows on natural, organic food habits and lifestyle. With huge following across all walks of life, Mantena was one of the key influencers and ace content producers in the morning band for TV channels. There were many popular references of him in movies as well.

This Indian chef, popularly known as ''Vah Chef'' hogged the limelight with his cookery show Varehvah. He is perhaps one of the very few chefs on Telugu television who hosts his own shows. With successful shows like Varehvah and Super Chef, Sanjay Thumma commands a niche fan-base all over. He is a popular YouTuber too.

The story of Madhu Priya makes a classic example of the phrase – ‘rags to riches’. This 20-year-old folk singer was first popular for her song Aadapillanamma...

Besides a couple of occasional appearance on TV, Madhu Priya earned her ‘celebrity’ status with the debut season of Telugu reality show Bigg Boss. She was one of the 16 participants on the show. She was later popular for her playback singing in the 2017 movie Fidaa (Vachinde song from the movie was a runaway hit with over 114 Million hits and still counting).

This controversial astrologer hit the pay dirt with his astrology shows on TV. He shot to fame with one of his TV debates where he admitted his failure to win an argument with rationalist-cum-human rights activist Babu. He went on-air confessing his lack of knowledge in the subject of astrology as well. This went viral on social media doubling his popularity.