Siva Sankara Vara Prasad (22 August 1952), better known as Chiranjeevi
Updated: Sep 18, 2021
Chiranjeevi is an actor and politician. He has acted in over 150 feature films in Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil as well as some Hindi-language films. Chiranjeevi received three Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Awards and a Filmfare Award South. In 2006 he was honored with the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, for his contributions to Indian cinema and presented with an honorary doctorate from Andhra University. He served as the Minister of Tourism for the Government of India from 2012–14.
Chiranjeevi is the king of Indian cinema. He is one of the most iconic figures in Indian cinema and has for decades been entertaining Indians. He is one of the most popular actors in the history of Telugu cinema with a huge number of fans across India, who call themselves Chiranjeevi's army.
Chiranjeevi was born in Mogalthur, a village in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. His father worked as a constable and was transferred on a regular basis. He spent his childhood in his native village with his grandparents.
He did his schooling at several institutions in Nidadavolu, Gurazala, Ponnur, Mangalagiri and Mogalthur. He was an active member of the National Cadet Corps during high school. He had also once appeared in the Republic Day Parade of India held in New Delhi when he was 18 years old. He then did his intermediate at C. S. R. Sarma College of Ongole City after receiving his bachelor's degree from Sri Y N College at Narasapuram.
Chiranjeevi's younger brother, Nagendra Babu, is a film producer and actor. His youngest brother, Pawan Kalyan, is an actor-politician who founded Jana Sena, a regional political party. Allu Aravind, his brother-in-law, is a film producer. Chiranjeevi is uncle to the actors Allu Arjun, Allu Sirish, Varun Tej, Niharika and Sai Dharam Tej.
He established the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust (CCT) on October 2, 1998, which comprises the Chiranjeevi Blood and Eye Banks. It is the largest recipient of blood and eye donations in the state. Over 68,000 blood donations and 1,414 eye donations have been provided through the trust. Since its inception, the CCT blood bank has assisted over 80,000 individuals and the eye bank has assisted around 1,000 people in the state of Andhra Pradesh. So far, about 350,000 individuals have dedicated their eyes to CCT, which has resulted in the restoration of sight to 1600 people. CCT has also received the AP State Government's "Best Voluntary Blood Bank Award" for the previous four years.
On June 10, 2006, the then-President of India, Abdul Kalam, launched the Chiranjeevi Charitable Foundation (CCF) at Hyderabad's Jubilee Hills Check Post. CCT has collected one lakh units of blood and has assisted over 96,000 individuals with blood transfusions. Chiranjeevi established oxygen banks and ambulances across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in May 2021 to address the requirements of COVID-19 patients.
“ K. Balachander, the director, stated "Chiranjeevi possesses qualities of both Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. He can not only perform action, but he can also act.”
In 2006, Chiranjeevi was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honor. In the same year, Andhra University bestowed upon him an Honorary Doctorate. He is a ten-time Filmfare Award South winner and a four-time Nandi Award winner. Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor presented him with the International Face of Indian Cinema award at the 3rd South Indian International Movie Awards in 2014. In 1987, he was the first South Indian actor to be invited to the Oscars ceremony