SS Rajamouli birthday special: Five actors who owe their biggest hits to the director

Today is the birthday of the pride of Telugu cinema, director SS Rajamouli. He has been called a pioneer, a visionary, a legend among many other things. Most people in India know this ace filmmaker due to his magnum opus ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’. While that may arguably be Rajamouli’s best work till date, he has worked with different actors in his 15-year-long career and given some blockbusters. Let us take a look at five actors who delivered a super hit with the 43-year-old birthday boy.

Prabhas

It goes without saying that if Prabhas has a pan India presence today then that is due to Rajamouli. The director roped in the talented actor for ‘Baahubali’ and Prabhas has worked diligently with the filmmaker for close to three years. Of course, such hard work has done miracles for Prabhas as now, he has achieved a superstar status in Tollywood. Thanks to Rajamouli’s portrayal of Mahendra and Amarendra Baahubali, Prabhas has also become an industry heartthrob. Notably, he also gave this actor a hit early in his career with ‘Chatrapati’ in 2005.

Kiccha Sudeep

‘Eega’ was a path-breaking film for Telugu film industry in terms of concepts, VFX and performances. It helped the two leads Nani and Samantha a lot, but it was Sudeep who really got a platform thanks to this film. The Kannada actor played the antagonist who is plagued by a housefly hell bent on revenge. Sudeep was equal parts hilarious, paranoid and menacing as he carried the film on his shoulders. After the success of ‘Eega’, Sudeep became a very popular name down South, all thanks to Mr Rajamouli.

Ram Charan

Ram was relatively new in Tollywood and was in need of hit films when Rajamouli extended him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The result was the romantic action film ‘Magadheera’. It was a truly unique concept for its time as it showed a love story between the two leads Ram Charan and Kajal Aggarwal over two different time periods. The sequences involving an ancient kingdom where Ram plays a warrior was the highlight of the film. ‘Magadheera’ became the rage in town and it catapulted Ram towards stardom.

Ravi Teja

One of the biggest hits of Ravi Teja’s career was ‘Vikramarkudu’. He might have been an established actor beforehand, but it was this SS Rajamouli film that made him the big star that he is today. It was an out-and-out masala flick where Ravi Teja played a double role, one a crook and the other, an upstanding cop. The film did so phenomenally well that it was later remade in Tamil as ‘Siruthai’ and in Hindi as ‘Rowdy Rathore’ with Akshay Kumar in the titular role.

Jr NTR

Jr NTR has always shared a special connection with SS Rajamouli. After all, it was Rajamouli who launched the actor with ‘Student No 1’ in 2001. It was also the first film for the director himself and after the great success of the film; the two formed a very deep bond. They teamed up two more times, for ‘Simhadri’ in 2003 and ‘Yamadonga’ in 2007. What’s more, all the three films have been blockbusters. This duo has never failed to create a storm at the box office.