Born on 9th August 1975, as Mahesh Ghattamaneni, Mahesh Babu is a popular Indian actor who works in the Telugu film industry. He is the son of the celebrated Telugu actor, Superstar Krishna, and Indira. After making his debut as a lead actor in the year 1999, Mahesh Babu has been part of many successful movies and has bagged more than 15 awards in his career; popular awards include Nandi Awards, Filmfare Awards, CineMAA Awards, South Indian International Movie Awards, and International Indian Film Academy Awards. Besides being an actor Mahesh Babu is a producer and philanthropist as well.

Early Life

Mahesh is the fourth amongst five siblings. He has a younger sister Priyadarshini, and three elder siblings Ghattamaneni Ramesh Babu, Padmavathi, and Manjoola Swaroop. Mahesh spent most of his childhood in Chennai where his maternal grandmother took care of him. Although born with a silver spoon, Mahesh was raised in a simple manner by his family. So much so, that Mahesh`s father, Krishna, insisted that in school he should never be treated as a celebrity`s son. In fact, Krishna never disclosed Mahesh`s real identity just to have a peaceful environment in the school.

While Krishna wanted to spend as much time with Mahesh, his film commitments kept him occupied; it was Mahesh`s brother, Ramesh, who took care of his studies. However, Krishna would make sure that his film shoots during weekends are conducted at the VGP Universal Kingdom, which was closer to the VGP Golden beach - a place where Mahesh played cricket with his friends.

Mahesh completed his schooling from St. Bede`s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and graduated from the Loyola College with a bachelor`s degree in commerce. Soon, after his graduation, he took acting lessons from director L. Satyanand.

Personal Life

While he was shooting for the movie Vamsi in Australia, Mahesh started dating his co-star, Namrata Shirodkar. After a courtship for about four years, the couple got married on 10th February 2005. A year after their marriage, Namrata gave birth to their first child, Gautam Krishna, on 31st August 2006. Born prematurely, Gautam Krishna was in a critical condition after his birth, however, with proper medical treatment he was brought up normally. Six years later, Namrata gave birth to a baby girl, Sitara, on July 12, 2012.

Vijaya Nirmala, the renowned Telugu filmmaker and actress is Mahesh`s stepmother, and the actor Naresh is his step-brother.

Movie Career

Although Mahesh made his debut as a lead actor in the year 1999 with the movie Raja Kumarudu, he first appeared in front of the camera two decades earlier, in 1979. At the age of four, Mahesh debuted as a child actor in the Telugu movie, Needa. Four years later, Mahesh appeared in Poratam and impressed by his screen presence, director Kodi Ramakrishna decided to cast him in his next movie. Soon, Mahesh was cast in many Telugu movies including Sankharavam, Mugguru Kodukulu, Bazaar Rowdy, Gudachari 117, and Koduku Diddina Kapuram. However, in the year 1990, Krishna insisted that Mahesh should take a break and rather concentrate on his studies.

It was almost a decade later that Mahesh made his debut with the movie Raja Kumarudu - also starring Priety Zinta- and this marked the entry of a talented young star in the Telugu film industry. Soon after the success of the movie, Mahesh earned the title of `The Little Prince`. Mahesh even went on to grab the Nandi Award for Best Male Actor for his performance in the movie. However, Mahesh failed to carry forward the success of his debut movie to his next two releases - Yuvaraju and Vamsi, which were both commercial failures.

Mahesh`s next release, Murari, was one of the most important releases of his career. The movie was a commercial hit and Mahesh terms this role as one of his favorites. His performance in the movie earned him a Nandi Special Jury Award. Following this, his next two releases weren`t well received at the box office and he only found success with the 2003 release - Okkadu, the highest grossing Telugu movie of the year. Mahesh went on to win his first Filmfare award for Best Actor for the movie as well.

Although his next movie, Nijam, was a commercial failure, Mahesh managed to earn favorable reviews from the critics and won his first Nandi Best Actor award.

His sister, Manjula, produced his next movie, Naani, which turned out to be a disaster at the box office and the failure left both of them disappointed. However, Mahesh bounced back with a powerful performance in Athadu, released in 2005. Mahesh`s next two movies - Pokiri and Athidhi- once again impressed the audience, however, he decided to take a break from movies post Athidhi. Initially planned for several months, his break extended to two years as the next movie he signed, Khaleja, was delayed. Further, Khaleja received mixed reviews from critics and turned out to be a commercial failure.

Post Khaleja, from 2011 to 2013, Mahesh delivered several hits including Dookudu, Businessman, and Seethamma Vakito Sirimalle Chettu. As fruitful as these years were for Mahesh, 2014 turned out to be disappointing as both his releases Nenokkadine and Aagadu failed to impress and failed at the box office.Soon, in 2015, Mahesh ventured into production and co-produced the film, Srimanthudu, under his newly formed production house, G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

Mahesh Babu was recently seen in the Telugu-Tamil bilingual movie, Bhahmotsavam, which was released in May 2016. The movie received a poor response at the box office. However, Mahesh`s performance was praised by the audience. His other projects include Spyder (2017), Bharat Ane Nenu (2018), Maharshi (2019) and Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020). His 2022 film Sarkaru Vaari Paata also received a mixed response, however, his performance was appreciated by critics. He also voiced the narrator in Ram Charan`s movie Acharya (2022) and produced Major (2022). He then featured in Guntur Kaaram (2024).