Prabhas

Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju born 23 October 1979, known mononymously as Prabhas, is an Indian film actor. One of the highest-paid actors of Indian cinema, Prabhas has featured in Forbes India‘s Celebrity 100 list three times since 2015 based on his income and popularity. He is the first South Indian actor to receive a wax sculpture at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.

Prabhas made his acting debut with the 2002 Telugu drama Eeswar, and later attained his breakthrough with the romantic action film Varsham (2004). His notable works include Chatrapathi (2005), Bujjigadu (2008), Billa (2009), Darling (2010), Mr. Perfect (2011), and Mirchi (2013). Prabhas won the state Nandi Award for Best Actor for his performance in Mirchi.

In 2015, Prabhas starred in the title role in S. S. Rajamouli’s epic action film Baahubali: The Beginning, which is the fourth-highest-grossing Indian film to date. He later reprised his role in its sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), which became the first Indian film ever to gross over ₹1,000 crore (US$155 million) in all languages in just ten days, and is the second highest-grossing Indian film to date.

In addition to acting in films, Prabhas supports many humanitarian causes. He is also the brand ambassador for the Mahindra TUV300.

Early life

Prabhas was born to film producer U. Suryanarayana Raju and his wife Siva Kumari. He has two siblings, a brother named Prabodh and a sister Pragathi. He is the youngest of the three children. He is the nephew of Telugu actor Uppalapati Krishnam Raju. Prabhas attended the DNR School, Bhimavaram and graduated with a B.Tech. degree from Sri Chaitanya College, Hyderabad.

Career

Prabhas started his movie career with Eeswar in 2002. In 2003, he was the lead in Raghavendra. In 2004, he appeared in Varsham. He continued his career with Adavi Raamudu and Chakram. In 2005 he acted in the film Chatrapathi directed by S. S. Rajamouli, in which he portrays the role of a refugee, exploited by goons. It had a 100-day run in 54 centers. Idlebrain stated that he had a unique style and macho charm in his screen presence. Later he acted in Pournami, Yogi and Munna, an action-drama film came out in 2007, followed by the action-comedy Bujjigadu in 2008. In 2009 his two films were Billa and Ek Niranjan. Indiaglitz called Billa stylish and visually rich.

In 2010 he appeared in the romantic comedy Darling. The film opened to positive reviews. The Times of India gave a two and half star rating explaining “Director Karunakaran extracts good performances from his actors, but can’t come up with a refreshing plot. It looks like the director hasn’t really come out of his Tholi Prema hangover as he dishes out yet another one-sided love saga but fails to come up with a valid and logical reason to make a Gen Z lad to hold back his feelings for his lover until the last moment. However, he compensates it all, by adding loads of fun moments in the film and the screenplay does have its share of some touching moments.” In 2011, Mr. Perfect, another romantic comedy.The review site GreatAndhra rated the film with three stars and noted “The film comes across as a clean, family entertainer and the intention of the makers must be appreciated.

In 2012, Prabhas starred in Rebel, an action film directed by Raghava Lawrence. His next film was Mirchi. He rendered voice for a short cameo for the film Denikaina Ready. Sashidhar from The Times of India stated, “The film belongs to hard-core Prabhas fans as the movie is stylish and visually rich but not much in content”. Purnima Ranawat from NDTV said, “Rebel serves up fare for the mass audience. The film will be definitely liked by Prabhas’ fans. Watch it for the dancing talent of Tamannaah Bhatia and action skills of Prabhas.” Radhika Rajamani from Rediff.com gave the movie one and half stars out of five and said, “Working with hardly any storyline, director Raghava Lawrence had made a film that is arduous to watch… Rebel is a movie for the masses and certainly not for the discerning audience.”

Jeevi gave a rating of 3.25 out of 5, commenting that “First half of Mirchi is decent. Flashback episode which occupies 100% of second half is good. Climax could have been better. The plus points of the film are Prabhas, music and all-round orientation. On a whole, Mirchi has all the ingredients of a commercial potboiler”. Mahesh S Koneru gave his verdict that “At the Box Office, the film will turn in a good commercial performance”, giving the film a score of 3.25/5. Way2movies also gave a rating of 3.25/5, giving the verdict that “Prabhas rocks the show in this decent yet formulaic commercial entertainer”. Super good movies gave the film 3 stars in a scale of 5, reviewing that “Go and Watch Mirchi, It entertains both Class and Mass. It is a worth watch.”

In 2015 he appeared as Shivudu/Mahendra Baahubali and Amarendra Baahubali in S.S. Rajamouli’s epic Baahubali: The Beginning which is the fourth-highest-grossing Indian film to date. Prabhas reprised his role in its sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), which became the first Indian film ever to gross over ₹1,000 crore (US$155 million) in all languages in just ten days, and it is the second highest-grossing Indian film to date. Prabhas won the SIIMA Award for Best Actor (Telugu) for his performance in The Conclusion.

In 2019, Prabhas starred in Sujeeth-directed action thriller Saaho. Despite receiving unfavourable reviews, the film went on to gross over ₹433 crore.

As of January 2021, Prabhas has two films under production, namely the romantic drama Radhe Shyam, and the Prashanth Neel-directed action film Salaar. Further, Prabhas has signed two other films. He would play the titular role in Aadipurush, an adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The film helmed by director Om Raut also stars Saif Ali Khan. Prabhas is committed to feature alongside Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan for Nag Ashwin’s untitled sci fi film.

Brands

Prabhas, who has been signed on by Mahindra & Mahindra as brand ambassador for the new Mahindra TUV300 car, has made his debut in the television commercial (TVC) arena with their new ad.

Filmography

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role(s)	Language	Notes
2002	Eeswar	Eeswar	Telugu	Debut
2003	Raghavendra	Raghavendra
2004	Varsham	Venkat
2004	Adavi Ramudu	Ramudu
2005	Chakram	Chakram
2005	Chatrapathi	Siva / Chatrapathi
2006	Pournami	Siva Kesava
2007	Yogi	Eeswar Prasad / Yogi
2007	Munna	Munna
2008	Bujjigadu	Bujji / Linga Raju / Rajinikanth
2009	Billa	Billa / Ranga
2009	Ek Niranjan	Chotu
2010	Darling	Prabhas “Prabha”
2011	Mr. Perfect	Vicky
2012	Rebel	Rishi / Rebel
2012	Denikaina Ready	Himself		Voice role; cameo appearance
2013	Mirchi	Jai
2014	Action Jackson	Himself	Hindi	Special appearance
2015	Baahubali: The Beginning	Mahendra Baahubali / Shivudu / Shivu Amarendra Baahubali	Telugu Tamil
2017	Baahubali 2: The Conclusion
2019	Saaho	Ashok Chakravarthy / Siddhant Nandan Saaho	Hindi Tamil Telugu
2021	Radhe Shyam	Vikramaditya	Hindi Telugu	Filming
2022	Salaar	TBA	Kannada Telugu	Filming
2022	Adipurush	Adipurush	Hindi Telugu	Filming

Awards and nominations

Prabhas awards and nominations

Prabhas at MAMI 18th Mumbai film festival
showAwards and nominations
Totals
Wins	6
Nominations	13
show Note