Ravi Teja

Ravi Teja Introduction

Ravi Teja (born January 26, 1968) is an Indian Telugu film actor.
Ravi Teja alias Bhoopatiraju Ravishankar Raju was born in Jaggampeta, East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh. He is the eldest of three sons to his father, Bhoopatiraju Rajgopal Raju, a pharmacist and mother Rajyalaxmi Bhoopatiraju, a home maker. Both his brothers are now actors as well. Bhoopatiraju Raghunath Raju aka Raghu has also played the lead in a few B-Grade Telugu films and Bhoopathiraju Bharatraj Raju shared space with Ravi Teja in a few of his films and now plays negative roles in Tollywood. Before starting his career in Tollywood, Ravi Teja spent most of his childhood in Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai and Bhopal. Later on he moved to Vijayawada along with his family and joined Siddhartha Degree College to pursue his Bachelors in Arts. Half way through his graduation, he left to Chennai on October 2nd 1988 to join Films.

On May 26, 2002 he married his now wife, Kalyani who hails from Ganapavaram, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. On June 6, 2003, he was first blessed with a daughter, Mokshadha and on July 28, 2006, his son, Manit, was born.

Early Film Career

His interest in films brought him into the film industry. In the beginning, he worked in both Television and Films as an Assistant Director but continued in feature films after that. He worked in several Bollywood as well as Tollywood projects including Prathibandh, Aaj Ka Goondaraj and Criminal. He managed to do a few small time roles in Bollywood as well. He acted as one of Chiranjeevi's friends in Aaj Ka Goondaraj. Ravi Teja joined Krishna Vamsi as an assistant director for Ninne Pelladatha. He also did a petty role in the film. Following Ninne Pelladatha, Krishna Vamsi gave him a well deserved break by casting him as one of the Lead actors in Sindhuram. Though he got a good name for Sindhuram, his career did not profit much from that. After that he played second lead in few films like Pattukondi Chuddam, Premaku Velayara and Padutha Thiyaga etc. His first film as a lead actor was Neekosam, 1999 directed by Sreenu Vaitla.

Career Success

It was Nee Kosam directed by a debut director Srinu Vaitla, that gave Raviteja the much needed impetus. He bagged an award for his performance in Nee Kosam. His secondary roles continued again with films like Annayya, Budget Padmanabam, Tirumala Tirupati Venkatesa and Ammayi Kosam.

Raviteja got his big break with Itlu Sravani Subramanyam. Puri Jagannath, who was desperately looking to establish himself in the industry, though his debut film Badri with Pawan Kalyan was a hit, paired up with Ravi Teja to deliver Itlu Sravani Subramanyam. The movie was well received by the audiences. That was the turning point in his career.

Vamsi, who was planning his comeback innings, directed RaviTeja in Avunu Validharu Ishtapaddaru. It definitely welcomed Vamsi back into the industry and added another hit to Ravi Teja's kitty. Meanwhile, his friend Poori Jagannaath, who made the biggest hit of the year in Kannada, Appu, decided to remake the film in Telugu with Ravi Teja. This time he wanted to produce the film too. Idiot came out and set a new image for Ravi Teja as a ragamuffin and mass hero. With all three of these films being super hits, he came to be known as the Hat-Trick hero. The character Chanti clicked and was a rage in Andhra Pradesh. His famous line "Chantigadu local" is still mouthed by many youngsters over Andhra Pradesh.

In 2003, Ravi Teja played the lead in Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi, which became one of the biggest hits of the year. The year 2006 has been very special to Ravi Teja as he gave one of his career's biggest hit Vikramarkudu, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, despite the flop Shock, a Ram Gopal Varma production.

Currently in 2008, the movie Krishna directed by V. V. Vinayak, has broken all the previous records of Ravi Teja, making it the biggest hit of his career.