Prabhas

Prabhas (birthname: Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju) is one of the biggest Indian movie stars in any language, with his main language being Telugu, starting with his starring role in writer-director Jayanth C. Paranjee’s action drama, Eeswar (2002), and continuing with career-setting performances in the Sobhan-directed romance, Varsham (2004), and then in a double role in writer-director S.S. Rajamouli’s blockbuster, Chatrapathi (2005).

Prabhas starred in director-writer Puri Jagannadh’s modest hit actioner, Bujjigadu: Made in Chennai (2008), with Mohan Babu and Trisha; and continued his streak of successful starring roles in another dual role in writer-director Meher Ramesh’s ss ss thriller, Billa (2009), and in the so-called “Superhit,” Telugu-language director-writer A. Karunakaran’s rom-com, Darling (2010), co-starring Kajal Aggarwal.

Prabhas starred in the title role in the family-oriented rom-com, Mr. Perfect (2011), directed by story writer Dasaradh and co-starring Kajal Aggarwal and Taapsee Pannu, and then starred in the highest-grossing (over $8 million) Telugu movie of 2013, director-writer Koratala Siva’s action movie, Mirchi, with Anushka Shetty and Richa Gangopadhyay. Prabhas starred in a dual role in S.S. Rajamouli’s two-part mythic epic, starting with Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), and concluding with Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), grossing a record-breaking combined box-office $270-plus million globally.

Prabhas then starred in three consecutive movies shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindu, including director-writer Sujeeth’s thriller, Saaho (2019); writer-director Radha Krishna Kumar’s period drama, Radhe Shyam (2022), co-starring Pooja Hegde; and director-writer Om Raut’s big-screen version of the Hindu epic, The Ramayana, Adipurush (2023), with Kriti Sanon, Saif Ali Khan, and Sunny Singh, but was one of Prabhas’ few commercial failures. Prabhas starred in another two-part Telugu epic, Salaar: Part 1—Ceasefire (2023) and Part 2—Shouryaanga Parvam (2025), both written and directed by Prashanth Neel and produced by Vijay Kiragandur.

Prabhas starred in the biggest Telugu-Hindi movie to date, writer-director Nag Ashwin’s $72 million-budgeted sci-fi epic, Kalki 2898 AD (2024), with Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, and Disha Patani, and released wide by AA Films. Prabhas starred in one of his first horror movies (or, more specifically, “romantic horror”) with director-writer Maruthi’s The Raja Saab (date to be announced).