Mahesh Babu (born 9 August 1975) is an Indian actor, producer, media personality, and philanthropist who works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema. He first appeared in the 1979 film Needa when he was four years old. He continued to perform as a child actor in several films, most of which featured his father Krishna. Following his role as the titular protagonist in Balachandrudu (1990) while still a child, his career went on hiatus so he could concentrate on his education until taking on his first lead role as an adult in the 1999 film Rajakumarudu, for which he won the Nandi Award for Best Male Debut. Afterwards, his career stagnated until successes like Murari (2001), Okkadu (2003) and Athadu (2005) brought him fame. In 2006, he played a gangster in the Puri Jagannadh-directed action-thriller Pokiri. The film became the highest-grossing Telugu film of all time, and according to Vogue India, cemented Babu's reputation as a "superstar".

In the wake of the failures of Sainikudu (2006) and Athidhi (2007), Babu took a long-term break from cinema for personal reasons. His next project, the fantasy action film Khaleja, was released in 2010 after significant delays. In 2011, he starred in Dookudu, which became the first Telugu film to gross over ₹1 billion. Businessman (2012), his next film, was well received and became one of the year's highest grossing Telugu films at a time that was particularly harsh on other big-budget productions. The following year, Babu co-starred alongside Venkatesh in the critically and commercially acclaimed drama film Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, which was considered the first Telugu multi-starrer in decades. He then featured in Sukumar's 2014 psychological thriller film 1: Nenokkadine. Although Babu's performance as a schizophrenic rock star was lauded by critics, the film itself received mixed reviews and failed to recover its budget. Aagadu, his next release that year, suffered a similar fate, despite the film's opening gross being his highest at the time.

His 2015 action-drama Srimanthudu was a commercial success and earned Babu his fifth Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu as well as his eighth Nandi Award in any category, the most by any individual. The film was also his first as a producer. His subsequent film Brahmotsavam (2016) and his first bilingual film Spyder (2017) under-performed at the box office. The actor's next role was as an inexperienced chief minister in Koratala Siva's Bharat Ane Nenu (2018). The film was the year's second highest-grossing Telugu production and critics praised Babu's performance. His following two films, Vamshi Paidipally's action-drama Maharshi (2019) and Anil Ravipudi's action-comedy Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020), also made substantial profits despite receiving mixed reception..Produced on a budget of ₹75 crore upon release, it received praise for its humor, performances, cinematography, and action sequences, but criticism aimed at screenplay, story and excessive length, and the film was commercially successful grossing more than ₹260 crore worldwide becoming the second highest grossing Telugu movie of 2020. According to box-office tracking portal Box Office Mojo, the film has grossed US$37.38 million worldwide. Babu's 2022 film Sarkaru Vaari Paata also received a mixed response, however, his performance was appreciated by critics. Sarkaru Vaari Paata grossed ₹180 crores worldwide in its theatrical run and became the third highest-grossing Telugu film of 2022. In 2024, Babu reunited with Trivikram Srinivas for their third collaboration in the film Guntur Kaaram. The movie received a mixed response from critics as well as the audience while Mahesh stole the show in the action drama. Guntur Kaaram collected a gross of ₹46 crore (US$5.5 million) in India and ₹94 crore worldwide on its opening day. It's estimated total end worldwide gross is ₹171.50 crore.

Film

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

• All films in this list are in Telugu unless otherwise indicated.

List of Mahesh Babu film credits as actor

Year	Film	Role(s)	Notes	Ref.
1979	Needa	Himself	Child artist
1983	Poratam	Bujji	Child artist
1987	Sankharavam	Raja	Child artist
1988	Bazaar Rowdy	Mahesh Babu	Child artist
1988	Mugguru Kodukulu	Surendra	Child artist
1989	Gudachari 117	Chinna	Child artist
1989	Koduku Diddina Kapuram	Vinod / Pramod	Child artist
1990	Anna Thammudu	Murali	Child artist
1990	Balachandrudu	Balachandra	Child artist
1999	Rajakumarudu	Raja	Debut in lead role
2000	Yuvaraju	Srinivas
	Vamsi	Vamsi
2001	Murari	Murari
2002	Takkari Donga	Raja
	Bobby	Bobby
2003	Okkadu	Ajay Varma
	Nijam	G. Seetaram
2004	Naani	Vijay "Viju" / Naani
	Arjun	Arjun
2005	Athadu	Nanda "Nandu" Gopal / Pardhu
2006	Pokiri	Pandu / Krishna Manohar IPS
	Sainikudu	Siddharth
2007	Athidhi	Athidhi
2010	Khaleja	Seetharama Raju
2011	Dookudu	G. Ajay Kumar IPS / Ballary Babu
2012	Businessman	Vijay Surya "Surya Bhai"
2013	Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu	Chinnodu
2014	1: Nenokkadine	Gautham
	Aagadu	Circle Encounter Shankar
2015	Srimanthudu	Harsha Vardhan
2016	Brahmotsavam	Ajay, Chantibabu
2017	Spyder	Shiva	Bilingual film Also shot in Tamil
2018	Bharat Ane Nenu	Bharath Ram
2019	Maharshi	K. Rishi Kumar	25th film
2020	Sarileru Neekevvaru	Major Ajay Krishna
2022	Sarkaru Vaari Paata	Mahesh, Mahi
2024	Guntur Kaaram	Bhogineni Veera Venkata Ramana Reddy

Other roles

List of Mahesh Babu film credits in non-acting roles

Year	Film	Role	Ref.
2008	Jalsa	Narrator
2013	Baadshah	Narrator
2015	Srimanthudu	Producer
2016	Brahmotsavam	Producer
2016	Sri Sri	Narrator
2018	Manasuku Nachindi	Narrator
2020	Sarileru Neekevvaru	Producer
2022	Sarkaru Vaari Paata	Producer
2022	Acharya	Narrator
	Major	Producer

See also

• List of awards and nominations received by Mahesh Babu
• G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment