Chiranjeevi
Chiranjeevi
22.08.1955 (69 gadi) (Mogalthur, West Godavari, AP, India)
Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, film producer and former politician, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Chiranjeevi starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu, as well as some films in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential actors of Telugu cinema. In a film career spanning over four decades, he won the Andhra Pradesh state's highest film award, the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, three Nandi Awards, and nine Filmfare Awards, Telugu. In 2006, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, for his contributions to Indian cinema.Chiranjeevi began his acting career in 1978 with Punadhirallu. However, Pranam Khareedu was released earlier at the box office. In 1987, he starred in Swayamkrushi which was dubbed into Russian and was screened at the Moscow International Film Festival. Chiranjeevi won the 1988 Indian Express Best Actor Award and the state Nandi Award for Best Actor awards for his performance in the film. In 1988, he co-produced Rudraveena which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.Chiranjeevi's 1992 film Gharana Mogudu, is the first south Indian film to collect over ₹10 crore at the box office. The film was screened at the 1993 International Film Festival of India in the mainstream section. It made Chiranjeevi the highest-paid actor in India at the time catapulting him to the cover pages of national weekly magazines in India. The entertainment magazines Filmfare and India Today named him "Bigger than Bachchan", a reference to Bollywood's Amitabh Bachchan. News magazine The Week hailed him as "the new money machine". He was paid ₹1.25 crore, the highest fee for any Indian actor, for the 1992 film Aapadbandhavudu. In 2002, Chiranjeevi was given the Samman Award for being the highest Income Tax payer for the 1999–2000 assessment year by the Minister of State for Finance.In 2008, Chiranjeevi founded the Praja Rajyam Party and contested in the 2009 Andhra Pradesh election. The party won 18 out of 294 seats and was later merged into the Indian National Congress in 2011. Chiranjeevi was appointed as the Minister of State with independent charge for the Ministry of Tourism on 27 October 2012 and served until 15 May 2014. In 2013, he inaugurated the Incredible India Exhibition, a joint participation of the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Chiranjeevi represented Incredible India at the 14th International Indian Film Academy Awards ceremony held in Macau. In 2013, IBN LIVE named him as one of "the men who changed the face of the Indian Cinema". In 2022 he was awarded the IFFI Indian Film Personality of the Year Award at the 53rd IFFI.