Telugu Movie Review Om Namo Venkatesaya - Cast & Crew

Anushka Shetty is the popular South Indian star who is very famous for her work in Arundhati, a Telugu movie. This film was dubbed in Tamil and made her more popular among the Tamil audience. Her first Tamil movie was Rendu with R. Madhavan. Anushka Shetty was not well known during the time of Rendu. It is only through Arundhati, she entered the hearts of the people. She masters all the roles given to her. She has paired with almost all the top stars of South Indian film industry right from Rajini Kanth. She paired Super Star in the film Linga and got a decent role in that film.

Pragya Jaiswal, born in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, studies at the Symbiosis Law School, Pune. During her college days, she took a part in Miss Pune Contest, won the competition, and surprisingly got a direct wild card entry into Femina Miss India 2008 where she got the title of Miss Fresh Face, Miss Dancing Queen, and Miss Friend Of The Earth. After completing her graduation, she decided to join a law firm in Mumbai, but as she couldn’t be there on time, she started modeling for advertisement campaigns for big brands. Pragya also received the Symbiosis Sanskritik Puraskar Award on 22 January 2014 for her work in the field of art and culture. Pragya made her debut in 2014 in the Bollywood movie Titoo MBA. Her maiden film was Virattu (a Tamil film), also scripted in Telugu as Dega.

Vimala Raman is a renowned model and actress. She is also known for her skills in Bharatnatyam dance. She is basically from Sydney, Australia. She was born on 23rd January 1982. She basically belongs from south India. Along with her education, she also got trained in an Indian classical dance form, that is, Bharatanatyam. She took her training in Natanalaya Dance Academy which is based in Sydney. She took her lesson in this dance form under the training of Jayalakshmi Kandiah. In the year 2006, she came into the limelight of the Indian cinema with a Tamil film, 'Poi'. After her debut, she went on doing South Indian films like, her first Malayalam film was ' Time'.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

A Mahesh Reddy is a well-known producer and director of India, predominantly active in the Telugu Film Industry. He had worked with veteran Tollywood director K. Raghvendra Rao. Over the last few years, A Mahesh Reddy produced several films which had been a hit in the South Indian Film Industry. He is mainly known for producing devotional films like Siridi Sai and Om Namo Venkatesaya. Directed by K Raghavendra Rao, Siridi Sai is a Telugu movie on the life of Sai Baba released on 6 September 2012.

Akkineni Nagarjuna is a veteran Indian actor, TV presenter, and producer, who predominantly worked in the Telugu film and television industry. He was born on August 29, 1959, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India. He has acted in over 90 films as a lead and supporting actor and has done cameo roles in both Bollywood and Tamil films. The brilliant actor won a total of 2 National Film Awards, 9 State Nandi Awards, and 3 Filmfare Awards. He is also an acclaimed actor in historical and biographical films.

Akkineni is the son of the prominent actor Nageswara Rao Akkineni, and his mother is Annapoorna Akkineni. When his family moved to Hyderabad, he studied at Hyderabad Public School and later attended the Little Flower Junior College. He took a Bachelor of Engineering at the College of Engineering in Guindy and graduated M.S. in Automobile Engineering at the Eastern Michigan University. Akkineni got married to former actress and dancer, Amala Akkineni in the year 1992. His son, Naga Chaitanya from his first marriage to Lakshmi Ramanaidu Daggubati, is also a Telugu actor. His younger son, Akkineni Akhil is his son with Amala. He is also the brother of the very popular producer, Venkat Akkineni.

Akkineni started as a child artist in the year 1967 through the Telugu film Sudigundalu, where his father acted in the lead role. After some years, he was debuted as a lead actor in V. Madhusudhana Rao’s Vikram in 1986. This film was produced by his brother and became a success, giving him a good start as an actor. In 1987, he was starred in the classical film, Sankeertana; a film that marked the directorial debut of Geetha Krishna. After a year, he was featured in the blockbuster Telugu action film, Aakhari Poratam, where he was paired with Suhasini and Sridevi. Later, Akkineni was starred in another K. Raghavendra Rao’s Telugu film entitled Janaki Ramudu, together with Vijayashanti in the lead role.

He was starred in Mani Ratnam’s romance film, Geethanjali in the year 1989, opposite Girija Shettar. This film met critical and commercial success and even earned the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Soon after, the talented actor met another success in the Telugu action film, Siva in 1989. This film marked the directorial debut of Ram Gopal Varma. Akkineni has also done the Hindi remake of the film entitled Shiva. This also marks his debut in Bollywood. Both films saw a huge success at the box-office. In 1991, he acted in the drama film Jaitra Yatra, from where he earned critical reception. This was followed by average success films like Prema Yuddham and Iddharu Iddhare. But Akkineni has proven his mettle and carved his niche in the industry as he appeared in more box-office hits like Neti Siddhartha, Killer, Chaitanya and Nirnayam, helmed by prominent directors like Priyadarshan, Fazil, and Prathap Pothen. He was then acknowledged as the ‘Celluloid Scientist’ as he usually experiments with different genres in films. In the following years, Akkineni appeared in box-office hit films such as President Gari Pellam, Gharana Bullodu, Varasudu and Allari Alludu.

In the year 1994, Akkineni was starred in a Hindi-Telugu bilingual film, Criminal, helmed by Mahesh Bhatt. For the first time, he acted in a comedy film entitled Hello Brother. This film was remade in Hindi entitled Judwaa and was also dubbed in Tamil. By the year 1996, he was starred and produced Krishna Vamsi’s Ninne Pelladata; a film that achieved the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu and the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu. In 1997, he acted in a devotional biographical film Annamayya, from which he bagged the Filmfare Award for the Best Actor, Nandi Award and the National Award for Special Mention. Then he donned the films Nuvvu Vastavani, Azad and Ninne Premistha in the year 2000.

Akkineni was also starred in romantic comedy films like Santosham, Shivamani, and Manmadhudu. He produced the Telugu film Satyam in the year 2003, which starred Sumanth, his nephew. In the following year, he acted in Nennanu and the box-office hit film, Mass, which he also produced under his own banner, Annapurna Studios. In 2005, he acted and produced the Telugu heist film, Super, along with Ayesha Takia, Sonu Sood, and Anushka Shetty. He was starred in the 2006 blockbuster biographical film, Sri Ramadasu. In this film, he earned the Nandi Award for Best Actor. In 2007, Akkineni acted in Raghava Lawrence’s Don, following with the action comedy thriller film, King in 2008.

By the year 2010, he was seen in films like Kedi and Ragada. He was also starred in the thriller film, Gaganam. He also donned the historical box-office film, Rajanna in 2011, where he earned the CineMAA Awards for Special Jury and the South Indian International Movie Awards for Special Appreciation. He was seen in Damarukam and Shirdi Sai in 2012. He also donned Greekuveerudu along with Nayantara and Bhai, opposite Richa Gandhopadhyay.

In the year 2014, the talented actor was seen in Vikram Kumar’s blockbuster Telugu drama film, Manam. This film was produced by Akkineni Family under the banner of Annapurna Studios. The film won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu. He earned the Special Jury Awards for Best Actor at the 5th TSR TV9 National Film Awards and the Best Outstanding Actor at the 11th CineMAA Awards.

He made his debut in the small screen as a TV producer in the drama soap, Yuva in 2009. He is also one of the major shareholders of the Telugu TV channel, MAA TV. He became an anchor for KBC – Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu and won the Entertainment Leader Award from the TV 5 Business Leaders Awards ceremony. Akkineni is one of the owners of the Mumbai Masters of the Indian Badminton League and the Mahi Racing Team India. He is also the endorser of Kalyan Jewellers in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Akkineni Nagarjuna Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)

Saurabh Raj Jain is a Hindi television actor, famous for his roles in mythological dramas. Born on 1st October 1985 in Delhi, he went to C.S.K.M. Delhi Boarding School and Indraprastha University in New Delhi and secured an MBA from Symbiosis International University, Pune. 

He began his career in television industry as Aman deep Chadha in Remix, which aired on Star One. He then went on to play Sukhi in Sony TV’s Meet Mila De Rabba, Rohit Chopra on Zee TV’s Kasamh Se, Vikram on Zee TV’s Yahaaan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli, Aman on SAB TV’s comedy show, Chintu Chinki Aur Ek Badi Si Love Story, Yuvraj Singh Bundela on Colors TV’s Uttaran, and Yudi on Life OK’s horror mini-series, Ek Thhi Naayika. However, he’s better known for his roles as Anand Raj Chopra on Colour TV’s Parichay, and Lord Krishna/Lord Vishnu in Colors TV’s Jai Shri Krishna, Life OK’s Devon Ke Dev…Mahadev, and Star Plus’s epic drama Mahabharat. 

Saurabh is not afraid of being stereotyped in one particular look and is known to bond well with his co-actors. He lost his father at an early age and the experience left him mature and able to shoulder responsibility. A practitioner of Buddhism, he enjoys the sound of chanting and he finds that he has become very calm and patient ever since he took up the roles of Krishna and Vishnu. He owes his success to his mother, and his wife, Riddhima, whom he married in 2010. He is a firm believer that mental fitness comes first and being calm is the key to being fit.

M.M. Keeravani is an established Music Director and a singer in Telugu Film Industry. He is the cousin of the hit Director S.S. Rajamouli. He is known as M.M. Kreem is Bollywood and Marakathamani in Tollywood. S.P. Balasubramanyam and K.S. Chitra have sung the maximum number of songs for his composition.