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Puri Jagannadh

Birth Name Puri Jagannadh
Date of birth 28-09-1966
birth place Kothapalli
spouse(s) Lavanya
children Akash, Pavithra
debut year 2000
debut movie Bachi

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Overview

“Eppudocchaam Ani Kaadannayya Bullet Dingindi Leda…” Just like this punch dialogue in Puri’s magnum opus ‘Pokiri’ his films too hit the bull’s eye at the box-office. His lead characters are always go-getters with recklessness cocktailed with an element of wit and style.

Puri Jagannadh, the master of speed is a boon to Telugu industry. While his contemporaries struggle to finish a film, he just makes movies in a jiffy delivering a new movie for every 3 months.

Personal Life

Puri was born in Pithapuram (East Godavari) on 28^th September 1966 and was brought up in Kothapalli village, near Narsipatnam, Vishakapatnam. He married Lavanya on 6th September 1996 and the humble couple is blessed with a son, Akash and daughter, Pavithra. Akash is very enthusiastic about acting and is a successful child artist.
Career

Puri began his career with ‘Badri’ (2000) in which he directed Power Star Pawan Kalyan. The movie turned out to be a super hit. In 2001 Puri made a sensible love story about a pair who wants to commit suicide titled, ‘Itlu Sravani Subramanyam’. The movie introduced a new flavor to Telugu cinema where the narrative is interlaced with subtle human emotions.

It was 2002 movie, ‘Idiot’ which became a blockbuster and made his stand as a maverick commercial director. The movie made Raviteja a full length commercial hero with mass image.

After the huge success of Idiot, Puri immediately shifted gears to human drama which is his personal favorite. He made ‘Amma Nanna O Tamil Ammayi’, a heart-touching family drama that made audience flock to theaters repeatedly.

Later he delivered hits like Sivamani, Super, 143 etc. Sivamani is a story of daring cop who falls in love with a singer. Nagarjuna donned the title role as Sivamani while Asin played the singer.

In 2004 Puri introduced Sai Ram Shankar, his younger brother as hero with the movie 143. It is a cute love story of two youngsters.

With ‘Super’ Puri introduced the sensational heroine of south, Anushka Shetty. The movie ran average. It’s a stylish flick with Nagarjuna as the lead.

Some works in everyone’s career remain as magnificent and outstanding. One such magnum opus which proved Puri’s caliber as a director is ‘Pokiri’. In 2006, the movie broke all the film records in the 75 years of Telugu cinema. It is even remade in Tamil as ‘Pokkiri’ and was huge hit. Salman Khan starred in its Hindi version titled ‘Wanted’ and created history in Bollywood as the first movie to collect 100 crores.

With the Stylish star Allu Arjun, Puri made ‘Desamuduru’ which remained as a super hit. The credit goes to Puri for making Allu Arjun, the first six pack hero of Tollywood.

Puri’s caliber is evident enough when Megastar Chiranjeevi approached him to launch his son, Ram Charan with the movie ‘Chirutha’ in 2007. It turned out to be a hit and the film’s music created a sensation.

In 2008 Puri teamed up with Prabhas for ‘Bujjigadu’. The movie was a hit and portrayed Prabhas in a new light. His character in the movie won him many fans and Prabhas credits Bujjigadu’s characterization as his personal favorite till date.

Neninthe(2008), a movie about a struggling assistant director venturing to create niche of his own in the industry. Puri got critical acclaim for this movie and even won Nandi award.

Puri tied up with Prabhas once again for ‘Ek Niranjan’ the movie was received well at the box office.

‘Golimar’ with Gopichand in 2010 is another hit for Puri where the real life story of encounter specialist Daya Nayak is portrayed with high octane action.

Later Puri made a Bollywood flick with Amitabh Bachchan in 2011, ‘Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap’. The film fetched Puri rave reviews for reprising Big B’s angry young man image back to the audience.

Puri’s second venture with Mahesh Babu is ‘ Businessman ’ (2012) revolving around Mumbai underworld. The movie turned out to be the biggest grosser of that time and made Puri-Mahesh combination the most sought-after one.

‘Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu’ is the recent hit of Puri. This Pawan Kalyan starrer is the story about a guy who responds to the news he listens to and takes responsibility to act against the culprits.

‘Iddarammayilatho’ starring Allu Arjun, Amala Paul and Catherine Tresa was a sensation when the first trailer of the movie was launched in YouTube. It was flooded with million views and expectations were quite high. But ‘Iddarammayilatho’ disappointed despite having outstanding music, excellent Cinematography.

Puri staged a comeback with his recent film, Heart Attack. The movie also produced by Puri himself went to become a commercial hit.

Inspiring People:

Puri takes inspiration from two individuals, the eccentric Indian philosopher Osho Rajneesh and the maverick director Ram Gopal Varma.

Puri loves rebel writers like Sri Sri, Ranganayakamma, Rachakonda Viswanadha Sastri and Chalam.
Trivia
- Puri recently renovated his office at Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills with the best interiors in Hyderabad. The office is named 'Cave' and is said to have costed more than 20 Crores for the director.
- In 2014 elections, Puri campaigned for his brother, Petla Uma Shankar Ganesh who contested from YSR Congress ticket in Narsipatnam (Vizag Rural). But the later lost the election
- Puri's son, Akash has acted in several films as a child actor. He is now making his filmy debut as hero in a film produced by Ramesh Prasad, head of Prasad Labs. The film will be directed by Raj Madiraju, who directed ‘Rushi’ earlier.
Upcoming Movies

Temper starring Junior NTR and Kajal Agarwal

CAREER STATISTICS

Filmography: No.of Movies

Director: 23

Character Artist: 1

awards

2006: Filmfare Award for Best Director for Pokiri

2006:Santosham Best Director Award for Pokiri

2006: Nandi Award for Best Popular Feature Film for Pokiri

2008: Nandi Award for Best Dialogue Writer for Neninthe

2012: Santosham Best Director Award for Businessman