Happy Birthday Victory Venkatesh: Unseen Snaps of the Versatile Star

Fondly called as the ‘Victory’ hero of Tollywood, Venkatesh Daggubati is one among the few star heroes who reinvented themselves by playing diversified roles on the celluloid. Unlike his contemporaries, the 58-year-old actor never craved for only commercial potboilers which can easily escalate his craze and remuneration. Instead, he opted for content-driven flicks and family entertainers to create an everlasting bonding with the Telugu audience.

With consistent box-office successes during the late 80s, 90s and early 2000s, Venkatesh cemented his place as one among the top four pillars of Telugu cinema along with Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, and Nagarjuna. Though the new-generation has picked up from late 2000s with the likes of Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan & Junior NTR entering the scene, these four veteran actors are still proving to be a force to reckon with. For the past few years, the ‘Ganesh’ star has slowed down a bit and is mostly focusing on multi-starrers. As the non-controversial star is turning 58, check out his unseen snaps.

Born to popular film producer D Ramanaidu and Rajeshwari in his ancestral village of Karamchedu, Venkatesh completed his schooling in Don Bosco and graduation in Loyola College, Chennai. He went on to pursue his MBA in the United States of America and upon return, he wanted to get into film production or venture into business. By the way, the talented actor was seen as a child artist in the 1971 cult film ‘Prem Nagar’. This was his maiden silver screen appearance.

Due to the unavailability of Superstar Krishna’s dates, Venkatesh was rushed in to play the protagonist’s role in the 1986 film ‘Kaliyuga Pandavulu’. The K Raghavendra Rao directorial also marked the debut of evergreen heroine Khushboo in the South. The action-drama surprised everyone by faring well at the ticket counters and the Daggubati scion became an overnight star. Despite a spate of flops followed, Venkatesh didn’t get bogged down and continued to work hard to finally have a victorious run at the BO.

At an early phase of his career, Venkatesh joined hands with acclaimed director K Viswanath for the dance-drama film ‘Swarnakamalam’ which fetched him his second Nandi Award. He followed it up with a queue of applaudable films like ‘Varasudochhadu’, ‘Prema’ and ‘Dhruva Nakshatram’ which includes the highly-successful ‘Bobbili Raja’. The B Gopal directorial brought immense stardom to Venky and he went on racing with successive hits like ‘Shatruvu’, ‘Coolie No.1’, ‘Kshana Kshanam’, ‘Chanti’, and ‘Sundarakanda’.

After bagging glowing praises for his intense portrayal in ‘Dharma Chakram’ and comedy act in ‘Intlo Illalu Vantintlo Priyuralu’, Venky started 1997 with the stupendous success of ‘Preminchukundam Raa’ followed by ‘Pelli Chesukundam’, ‘Suryavamsam’, ‘Ganesh’, ‘Premante Idera’, ‘Raja’, ‘Seenu’, ‘Kalisundam Raa’ and ‘Jayam Manade Raa’. Gradually slowing down on action content, Venkatesh started to focus on family entertainers from 2000s which made him a favourite among ladies. Movies like ‘Nuvvu Naaku Nachav’, ‘Malliswari’, ‘Sankranthi’ and ‘Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule’ can be seen as prime examples.

Venkatesh is the only hero in Tollywood to bag seven Nandi awards for his genuine performance in films like ‘Swarna Kamalam’, ‘Prema’, ‘Ganesh’, ‘Jayam Manade Raa’ and others. He also bagged six Filmfare awards which include the Best Actor- Critics for his last film ‘Guru’, the sports-drama released in 2017. Currently, Venky has wrapped up shooting for F2: Fun & Frustration with Varun Tej and will soon join the sets of ‘Venky Mama’ along with his nephew Naga Chaitanya.