K. Raghavendra Rao is a producer, screenwriter, choreographer and film director, who made his mark in Telugu cinema. A couple of films that he made in Hindi had mainly Jeetendra in lead roles. K. Raghavendra Rao and Jeetendra had worked together in twelve films and every film was declared a hit in 1980’s. He also directed some Kannada films.Â
He was the director, who gave Sridevi her first major success in the Hindi cinema with Himmatwala. Later on, every time she was teamed with Jeetendra, it resulted in blockbuster hits. It was Raghvendra, who made Sridevi a child actor too and years later, he made to cast her in Padaharella Vayasu, which made her a Telugu star, and then in Himmatwala which made her a Bollywood star.Â
His best film is Annamayya, which won him two national film awards was even a selective entry in International Film Festival of India. After the success of Anamayaa, he directed some devotional films too, such as
Sri Ramadasu
, Pandurangadu and Sri Manjnatha and
Shirdi Sai
and for all devotional films,
Akkineni Nagarjuna
had worked with director K Raghavendra Rao and if everything goes well, it is believed that Nagarjuna will be seen in another devotional character. He entered the film industry by directing 'Babu' that has
Sobhan Babu
in the main lead. That film was a major success and he never looked back.Â
Many feel that he is a commercial director, which had hero-backed script always, but he also preferred to do feminine –oriented films like Jyoti,
Aame Katha
and Kalpana. He also had choreographed for
Pelli Sandadi
, which became biggest musical hits in Andhra and he was credited as best choreographer. He is the one who had given uplift to many Telugu actresses such as Sridevi, Radha,
Ramya Krishnan
and Vijayashanti.Â
Undoubtedly, he is a legend of Telugu cinema, who had directed 110 films and produced 25 films in various Indian languages till date. His career spans four decades. His career began in 1975 with association with the late N.T.R and since then, he worked with every generations that include NTR, ANR, Krishna, Sobhan Babu, Chirjanjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu, junior NTR and
Allu Arjun
.