Naga Chaitanya Akkineni

Naga Chaitanya Akkineni is one of the most popular actors in the Telugu film industry.

Chaitanya was brought up in Chennai. He studied at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, Chennai, and AMM School, Chennai, and graduated from St. Mary's College, Hyderabad.

He told Nagarjuna Akkineni, his father, about his passion for acting during his second year in college.

Chaitanya made his acting debut with Josh (2009), and his breakthrough came with Ye Maaya Chesave (2010). In his initial years, he appeared in successful films, including 100% Love (2011), Tadakha (2013), and Manam (2014), along with several other films.

Chaitanya starred in the romantic comedy Oka Laila Kosam (2014), which was highly appreciated and well-received by the audience and critics. He also ventured into action-drama thrillers like Dohchay (2015), which Sudheer Varma directed. He was cast in another bilingual romantic movie Saahasam Swaasaga Saagipo (2016) in 2016.

Chaitanya is known for his notable work in films such as Autonagar Surya (2014), and Premam (2016). In 2017, he had two releases, Rarandoi Veduka Chudham (2017) and Yuddham Sharanam (2017).

In 2018, he played the role of his grandfather, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, in the biopic Mahanati (2018), which was a massive hit. In the same year, he appeared in Sailaja Reddy Alludu (2018), which proved to be a great festive release. After a couple of months, he performed the role of an ambidextrous man in the thriller Savyasachi (2018) which Chandoo Mondeti directed.

Akkineni's Majili (2019) became the highest-grossing film in Chaitanya's career. Majili was the fourth movie he starred in with his then-wife Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and this movie also made the record of being the highest-grossing movie in his career with Rs. 740 million in 2020.

His other movies, Venky Mama (2019) and Love Story (2021) did well at the box office. In Venky Mam, he starred along with Venkatesh, his maternal uncle.

Chaitanya made his Hindi film debut in 2022 with Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) and appeared in a bilingual film, Custody (2023), which marks his Tamil debut.

Bangarraju (2022) is the sequel to the super hit movie Soggade Chinni Nayana (2016), the second collaboration of Nagarjuna Akkineni and Chaitanya after the Telugu classic movie Manam (2014).

Chaitanya won the Filmfare Award South and CineMAA Awards for Best Male Debut in 2009 for the film Josh (2009).

He has won several film awards, including Filmfare Awards for Best Male Debut - South, Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actor, and SIIMA Award for Best Actor (Critics) for the movie Manam. His list of other awards feature - the South Scope Cinema Awards as Rising Star of the South for the movie Ye Maaya Chesave (2010), TSR - TV9 National Film Awards as Special Appreciation Award, 15th Santosham Film Awards as Best Actor for Premam, TSR - TV9 National Film Awards as Special Jury Award for the movie Sailaja Reddy Alludu (2018).