Ghattamaneni Mahesh Babu (born 9 August 1975) is an Indian actor, producer, media personality, and philanthropist who works mainly in Telugu cinema. He has appeared in more than 25 films, and won several accolades including, eight Nandi Awards, five Filmfare Telugu Awards, four SIIMA Awards, three CineMAA Awards, and one IIFA Utsavam Award. One of the highest-paid Telugu film actors, he also owns the production house G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment.
The younger son of veteran Telugu actor Krishna, Mahesh made his debut as a child artist in a cameo role in Needa (1979), at the age of four, and acted in eight other films as a child artist. He made his debut as a lead actor with Rajakumarudu (1999) which won him the Nandi Award for Best Male Debut. Babu achieved his breakthrough with the supernatural drama Murari (2001), and the action film Okkadu (2003). He went on to act in other commercially successful films such as Arjun (2004), Athadu (2005), Pokiri (2006), Dookudu (2011), Businessman (2012), Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2013), Srimanthudu (2015), Bharat Ane Nenu (2018), Maharshi (2019), Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020) and Sarkaru Vaari Paata (2022). Pokiri held the record of being the highest-grossing Telugu film, Maharshi won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film, while Sarileru Neekevvaru, his highest grosser, collected over at the box office.
Referred to in the media and by his fans as Prince, he is one of the most popular actors of Telugu cinema. In addition to being an actor, he is a humanitarian and philanthropist – co running the charitable trust and non-profit organisation Heal A Child . He is also associated with Rainbow Hospitals as their goodwill ambassador. He entered into the film exhibition business alongside the late Narayandas Narang of Asian Group with the inauguration of the seven-screen multiplex, AMB cinemas at Gachibowli, Hyderabad. He married actress Namrata Shirodkar in 2005, with whom he has a son and a daughter.
Early life and family
Ghattamaneni Mahesh Babu was born on 9 August 1975 in a Telugu speaking family in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. He is the fourth of the five children of Telugu actor Krishna and Indira, after Ramesh Babu, Padmavathi, and Manjula and before Priyadarshini. Their family hails from Burripalem in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. Babu spent his childhood mostly in Madras under the care of his maternal grandmother Durgamma and the rest of his family.
He was educated at St. Bede's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Chennai. He obtained a bachelor's degree in commerce from the Loyola College, Chennai. Babu didn't learn Telugu in school and can't read the language. He stated, he had to rely on his memory or conversations with the film directors while delivering dialogues during the dubbing phase of the films.
Acting career
Early career and breakthrough (1979–2003) At the age of four, Babu visited the sets of the Telugu film Needa (1979) where its director Dasari Narayana Rao shot a few sequences of his as a part of the narrative in the presence of the former's brother Ramesh. Needa marked his debut as a child actor. In 1983, he acted in Poratam (1983) upon being requested by its director Kodi Ramakrishna. He went on to act as a child artist in the films Sankharavam (1987), Bazaar Rowdy (1988), Mugguru Kodukulu (1988) and Gudachari 117 (1989). He played a dual role in the film Koduku Diddina Kapuram (1989). Babu then appeared in Bala Chandrudu (1990), and Anna Thammudu (1990).