Vijay Deverakonda

Deverakonda Vijay Sai (born 9 May 1989) is an Indian film actor and producer known predominantly for his works in Telugu cinema. He debuted in 2011 with Ravi Babu's romantic comedy Nuvvila (2011), but he gained recognition with his supporting role in the coming-of-age drama Yevade Subramanyam (2015). Deverakonda made his debut as a lead in the 2016 romantic comedy Pelli Choopulu, which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu and the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu.

Subsequently, Deverakonda has established himself as a leading actor of Telugu cinema by starring in lead roles in critical and commercial successes such as Arjun Reddy (2017), Mahanati (2018), Geetha Govindam (2018), and Taxiwaala (2018). His performance in Arjun Reddy won him several accolades, including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu. In 2019, he won the South Indian International Movie Critics Award for Best Actor and was also nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu for his work in Geetha Govindam. He owns film production company, King of the Hill Entertainment, which produced its maiden film Meeku Maathrame Cheptha in 2019.

Deverakonda was featured by Forbes India in their 30 Under 30 list of 2019. According to the annual report by the search engine Google, he was the most searched South Indian actor in 2019.

Early life
Deverakonda was born in Achampet that is present-day Telangana, India to Govardhan Rao and his wife Madhavi. His father is a television serial and ad film director while mother is a soft skills tutor. Deverakonda was schooled at Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Anantapur and Little Flower Junior College, Hyderabad. He graduated from Badruka College of Commerce.

Early career and struggle (2011–2015)
Deverakonda made his film debut by starring in Ravi Babu's romantic comedy Nuvvila in 2011, and then had a small cameo role in Sekhar Kammula's Life is Beautiful. Both films were decently successful but failed to give Deverakonda much recognition. Then, he was introduced to an assistant director at the time, Nag Ashwin, who later cast him in a supporting role for the 2015 movie Yevade Subramanyam alongside actor Nani. The film was produced by the daughters of Ashwini Dutt, a producer in the Telugu film industry. Priyanka Dutt backed him, and once shooting started, Swapna Dutt signed him onto her company. The film went on to be a critical and commercial success, and Deverakonda won high praise for his diction, energy, and role in the movie. This movie finally gave him a much-desired break in Telugu cinema.

Breakthrough and success (2015–present)
Deverakonda's first lead role was in Pelli Choopulu, a romantic coming-of-age entertainer directed by Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam, with Ritu Varma as the female lead. The film went on to be commercially successful and won the Best Feature Film in Telugu at the 64th National Film Awards as well as the Filmfare Award for Best Film - Telugu. He received praise for his realistic portrayal of a lazy and unmotivated chef. He then starred in a masala entertainer, Dwaraka in 2017. His next film Arjun Reddy received praise and criticism alike for being very bold and radical. Vijay's portrayal as a self-destructive, short-tempered, and alcoholic surgeon received critical acclaim, which led to him winning numerous awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu. Following Arjun Reddy was Ye Mantram Vesave, which was delayed for 5 years and finally released. It was given poor reviews from critics and could not fare well at the box office. He then starred in Mahanati, a biographical film around life of actress Savitri. He won acclaim for playing a charismatic and easy going photographer. Deverakonda's next release in 2018 was Geetha Arts' romantic comedy Geetha Govindam, in which he starred as an innocent and nervous college professor. Deverakonda received praise for playing a subtle, boy-next-door character after an aggressive role in Arjun Reddy. His next film, released on 5 October, was the Tamil political thriller NOTA, directed by Iru Mugan-fame Anand Shankar. It performed poorly at the box office. His next project was UV Creations' supernatural comedy thriller Taxiwala in which Deverakonda stumbles upon a possessed car opposite Priyanka Jawalkar.

In 2019, Deverakonda was seen in Bharat Kamma's Dear Comrade, a romantic action drama, once again alongside Rashmika Mandanna, after Geetha Govindam. In 2020, he acted in Kranthi Madhav's romantic drama titled World Famous Lover opposite Rashi Khanna, Catherine Tresa, Aishwarya Rajesh, and Izabelle Leite. He will next be seen in Hero, a Telugu film that will be dubbed in Tamil and Malayalam too. The movie will be directed by Anand Annamalai, co-writer of films like Kuttramae Thandanai and Kaakka Muttai. The film see Malavika Mohanan essay the role of Vijay's love interest. Deverakonda will be taking on the role of a biker in this film.

Deverakonda was placed 72nd in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list 2018. In 2019, Film Companion ranked Deverakonda's performance in Arjun Reddy among 100 Greatest Performances of the decade.

Deverakonda is set to make his debut in Hindi cinema with Karan Johar produced multilingual film, Fighter. Directed by Puri Jagannadh and co-starring Ananya Panday, the film went on floors in January 2020.

Brands and endorsements
On 11 February 2020, Deverakonda launched his fashion brand ‘Rowdy Wear’ on e-commerce portal Myntra. He was the brand ambassador of food delivery app Zomato.

The Deverakonda Foundation
Vijay Deverakonda conceptualised and founded The Deverakonda Foundation, a non-profit organisation in April 2019. The organisation will be supporting in training and employment for 1,00,000 underprivileged, meritorious, and deserving youth in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He aspires to provide end to end support in training and employment, focus on wealth creation and empowerment rather than charity.

COVID-19 Pandemic
An initiative was started to battle COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The foundation, up till now, has successfully aided 17 thousand middle-class families with their Groceries and basic essentials, spending Rs 1.7 crores, with the help of his Middle Class Fund (MCF). Over 8500+ volunteers donated over 1.5 crores to join his community effort. From the lockdown 5.0 has enough relaxations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is slowing resuming business. Organisers have decided to windup the initiative from 2 June 2020.

Other Works

 * Deverakonda donated ₹500,000 for Kerala flood relief fund.
 * Deverakonda donated ₹2,500,000 to Telangana CM's relief fund by auctioning his Filmfare award.
 * Deverakonda made his donation for Martyr's families of Pulwama attack and requested others to contribute something for the families of soldiers.
 * Deverakonda helped a kickboxer, Ganesh Ambari with ₹24,000 through Deverakonda Foundation. Ganesh later won the title of Vaco Indian Open International Kick-boxing Championship Title 2020.
 * Deverakonda donated ₹13,000,000 with an aim to provide financial relief to affected families during the corona crisis.
 * Deverakonda donated ₹1,000,000 for Hyderabad flood relief fund.

Public Image
Deverakonda says his family used to call him a rowdy every time he did something that was not approved by them. Over time, he started using this term for himself and his fans.

Deverakonda is known to be bold in putting out his opinions on stage or interviews and has gathered a lot of popularity(some of which was also negative in nature). His speech at Arjun Reddy audio launch in 2017, where he publicly teared into Censor board and was a rage among youth and shot him to fame overnight. He made the hundreds of youth chant the cuss words that were censored in the movie, and asked them to do the same in the theatres when his voice is muted.

Filmography

 * All films are in Telugu, unless otherwise noted.