Started acting at age 4
Started acting at age 4
Being the fourth child of veteran Telugu actor Krishna, he entered the films at a very young age. In fact, his debut on the silver screen was in 1979 with the film ‘Needa’, when he was just four years old. As a child artist, he did nine movies over the span of 15 years. That way, his actual acting career spans over 28 years!
Stopped acting to finish his studies
As interested as he was in acting, it never stopped Mahesh from getting an education. From 1990 to 1999, he took a hiatus from showbiz to focus on his studies on the orders of his father Krishna. His last film as child artist was ‘Anna Thamudu’ in the year 1990.
Debut opposite Preity Zinta
Interestingly, Mahesh made his debut as a hero in 1999 with the film ‘Raja Kumarudu’, opposite none other than Preity Zinta. Preity had already appeared in three films by then, one of which was Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Dil Se’. This was also Zinta’s last film in Telugu, after which, she ventured completely into Bollywood.
Six Nandi awards in seven years
Nandi award is the highest honour for any actor in Telugu cinema. Yet, for Mahesh, it was a piece of cake. Since his debut as a hero in 1999 to the year 2006, he won a whopping six Nandi awards under various category for ‘Raja Kumarudu’, ‘Murari’, ‘Takkari Donga’, ‘Nijam’, ‘Arjun’ and ‘Athadu’. Getting awards has always been second nature for Prince of Tollywood!
Fluent in both Tamil and Telugu
This is one of the most amazing facts about Mahesh. While most Tollywood actors struggle with Tamil and most Kollywood actors struggle with Telugu, the superstar can speak both languages perfectly. This obviously gives him an edge in both the film industries and he will be dubbing for the Tamil portion himself for the upcoming AR Murugadoss bilingual.
Avid philanthropist
Mahesh always contributes 30 percent of his annual income to charities, but never publicizes it. Being an introvert off screen, he prefers to carry out his charity from behind the curtains and doesn't want to be in the spotlight for it. The ‘Brahmotsavam’ actor donated more than Rs 16 crore for relief operations during the Hudhud cyclone. He recently also adopted his native village of Burripalem and has big plans to develop it into a prosperous village.
Schoolmates with actor Karthi
Mahesh’s schooling was in Chennai, at St Bede’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School. Coincidentally, it was the same school in which actor Karthi studied at the same time. Of course, the Telugu superstar was a senior to Karthi, who is younger to him by two years.
Not Mr Goody two shoes
As good an image he has now, Mahesh doesn’t exactly have a squeaky clean record. He was embroiled in controversy in 2004, when he held an anti piracy raid in Warangal that got out of hand. The actor was of course, fully supported by the film fraternity and since his cause was just, he was exonerated in 2006. This is perhaps the one and only controversy in his entire life.
He follows only one man on Twitter
While the world follows the actor on Twitter, he follows only one man. Wondering who it is? It is actually politician and entrepreneur Jay Galla. Looks like the Prince is interested in politics too! We wonder what inspired Mahesh to follow only this politician.
Cannot read or write Telugu
Finally, the most astounding fact of all – the actor, who has the best dialogue delivery in Tollywood, cannot read Telugu! Yes, that's true! The reason is that since he did his schooling in Chennai, he could not learn to read Telugu at a young age. However, he is super fluent in speaking and learns his dialogues by listening to his directors who narrate it to him.
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