Megastar Chiranjeevi: Lesser known facts

Salman Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Abhishek Bachchan attend Chiranjeevi’s birthday bash

Megastar Chiranjeevi’s 60th birthday bash brought three Bollywood stars under one roof. While Salman Khan, who fondly calls the birthday boy as 'Chiru' took a break from the shoot of his film, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo for the party, Abhishek Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi also came down to be a part of this star-studded birthday party. Dressed in black, all the three Bollywood men looked dapper. Jaya Bachchan, who was a vision in white, kept Abhishek company throughout the evening. Vivek had wife, Priyanka, by his side.


As Chiranjeevi turns 60, know some interesting facts about the actor…

Megastar Chiranjeevi, who turns 60 today, shows no signs of slowing down. He is one of the most popular actors in the Telugu film industry. He is an actor who needs no introduction for his contribution to Indian cinema. The versatile actor has acted in more than 146 films. The actor entered the film industry in the year 1978 with the film Pranam Khareedu and turned out to be the Megastar of Telugu film industry.
Let's take a look at some lesser known facts about Chiranjeevi...

Real name

His real name is Konidela Sivasankara Vara Prasad. But his family was a passionate devotee of Lord Hanuman, so his mother advised the actor to change his name to 'Chiranjeevi', which means to 'live forever’, which refers to Hanuman being immortal.

Before limelight

The actor was born in Mogalthur, a small village near Narsapur. Chiranjeevi completed his graduation from Sri Y N College at Narsapur in the commerce stream. Before entering the film industry, Chiranjeevi joined the Madras Film Institute in Chennai in the year 1976.

First film

Pranam Khareedu was Chiranjeevi's first film which released in the year 1978. But not many know that the actor was to originally make his acting debut in the film Punadhirallu (1978), which got delayed due to some reasons and released a year later in 1979. Thus, Pranam Khareedu became his first to be released.

150th film

Reportedly, Auto Johnny will be Chiranjeevi's 150th film in his career span of 37 years. The title of the film is tentative and the film will be directed by Puri Jagannadh.

Movies dubbed in foreign language

Chiranjeevi's 1990 starrer Kodama Simham directed by K. Murali Mohan Rao, was the first South Indian movie that was dubbed in English language. The English version was named as Hunters of the Indian Treasure. According to idlebrain.com, his 1987 starrer films, Pasivadi Pranam and Swayamkrushi were also dubbed in Russian language. Swayamkrushi was also screened at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Record-breaking collection

Chiranjeevi's 1992 film Gharana Mogudu was the first Tollywood film that crossed the record of Rs 10 crore. The film is directed by K. Raghavendra Rao and also stars Nagma in the lead role. Gharana Mogudu even won Filmfare Award for Best Film - Telugu. The film was later remade in Hindi as Laadla starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi.

Entry into politics

Chiranjeevi entered the world of politics in the year 2008. He started his own political party known as Praja Rajyam in Andhra Pradesh. In the 2009 general elections, Chiranjeevi was elected a Member of the State Assembly from Tirupati. Later, in the year 2011, the actor-turned-politician, merged his Praja Rajyam Party with the Indian National Congress. In the year 2012, Chiranjeevi was elected as the Minister of Tourism. He is currently the Member of Parliament - Rajya Sabha.

Worked in other film industry

Undoubtedly Chiranjeevi is the Megastar of Telugu film industry. But apart from Tollywood, the actor has also worked in many Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films.

Honours, Awards and Titles

Chiranjeevi was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in the year 2006. He also received Honorary Doctorate by Andhra University in the year 2006. The actor won four Nandi Awards and nine Filmfare Awards South for his films. The actor-turned-politician was reportedly tagged as ‘Bigger than Bachchan’ by the Filmfare and India Today magazines. Also, the news magazine, The Week titled him as "The new money machine". Director K. Balachander apparently said that the actor has both Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth in him. Not only can he do action, he can also act. According to TOI reports, Chiranjeevi was the first South Indian actor who was invited for the annual American awards ceremony ‘Oscar’ in the year 1987.