Pawan Kalyan, born on 2nd September 1971, is an Indian film actor, producer, martial artist, director, stunt coordinator, writer, and politician, working predominantly in the Telugu film industry. He ventured into films in 1996 making his debut in the Telugu film Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi. The actor was ranked #26 on the Forbes India list of top 100 Celebrities of 2013.

Early Life
Pawan was born to Konidela Venkat Rao and Anjana Devi and is the younger brother of actor Nagendra Babu and actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi. He was born in Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh. His birth name was Konidala Kalyan Babu but he started to use his stage name Pawan Kalyan after a martial arts presentation that he organized to showcase his training; "Pawan" symbolizing Hanuman. Tollywood film actor Ram Charan Teja is his nephew and he is the paternal uncle of actor Allu Arjun.

Personal Life
Pawan first married Nandini in 1997 and their marriage lasted for just over a decade, until the couple split in 2008. He then started dating his co-star Renu Desai and married her in 2009 The couple has a son, Akira, and a daughter, Aadhya. However, Pawan`s second marriage ended in 2012. He then tied the knot to Russian national actress Anna Lezhneva in 2013.

Movie Career
After his debut in the film Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi in 1996, he acted in director Muthyala Subbaiah`s 1996 film Gokulamlo Seetha, a remake of the Tamil film Gokulathil Seethai. He was then seen in Suswagatham in the same year, a remake of 1997 Tamil film Love Today. The year 1998 saw him in Tholi Prema, a movie that won a National Award and six Nandi Awards. Films like Gokulamlo Seetha, Suswagatham, Thammudu, Badri, Kushi, Jalsa, Gabbar Singh gave Pawan an impetus as an actor. Another notable film starring Pawan was Attarintiki Daredi, which became one of the highest grossing Telugu films at the time of its release. He played the role of a kickboxer in Thammudu in the year 1999 directed by P. A. Arun Prasad. Moving on, he appeared inPuri Jagannadh`s first directorial venture Badri. In the same year, he acted in the film Kushi, directed by S. J. Surya, then Johnny in 2003, directed by Kalyan, and Gudumba Shankar in 2004 directed by Veera Shankar. Kalyan himself wrote the script and screenplay for Gudumba Shankar. Not just the script and the screenplay but Pawan choreographed three songs action scenes for the film as well.

In 2005, he appeared in the film Balu ABCDEFG, directed by A. Karunakaran and then in Bangaram in 2006, directed by Tamil director Dharani. This was followed by Annavaram, directed byBhimaneni Srinivasa Rao in the same year, co-starring Asin and Sandhya. A notable fact about this Tamil remake film is that it went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of the year. In 2003, he took his first steps as a director with the movie Johnny. In 2006, he started working on his second directorial venture, Satyagrahi produced by A. M. Rathnam, which is about a tale revolving around the atrocities in society, but the project had to be shelved.

One movie the actor is really proud to have worked in is Jalsa, in the year 2008, directed by Trivikram Srinivas and produced by Allu Aravind, as it received the highest first-day collection for any movie in the history of Telugu cinema, at the time. Then, in 2010, he was seen in Puli, followed by Teen Maar in 2011, which was a remake of Love Aaj Kal, and then in Vishnuvardhan`s gangster film Panjaa. The year 2012 was great for the actor. He appeared in Gabbar Singh, a remake of Dabangg, directed by Harish Shankar, which successfully completed 100 days and stood as the second highest grossing film of all time in Tollywood, as of 2016. In the same year, for the movie Gabbar Singh, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu, CineMAA Award for Best Actor - Male and SIIMA Award for Best Actor.

The next film he did was Trivikram Srinivas`s Attarintiki Daredi in 2013, which faced piracy problems as a copy of the movie was leaked before its theatrical release. However, the movie managed to be a blockbuster hit, completing 100 days in 33 theaters. At the time of its release, Gabbar Singh held the record of highest-grossing films of all time in Tollywood exceeding the previous record of Magadheera. In 2013, he won Best Actor - Telugu at Santosham Film Awards and Best Actor (Male) in Margadarsi Big Telugu Entertainment Awards for Attarintiki Daredi. His next movie was a remake of Hindi movie Oh My God, which released on 10 January 2015 and gained positive responses. In 2016, the actor appeared in the movie Sardaar Gabbar Singh, in which he plays a brave cop with a motive to save the residents of Rattanpur. It was also released with a Hindi-dubbed version. His other 2016 release includes the Telugu film A Aa. His other projects include Katamarayudu (2017), Vakeel Saab (2021) and Hari Hara Veera Mallu (2021).