Chiranjeevi was born as Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad in Mogalthur, West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India on August 22, 1955. The greatest star of the Telegu film industry, Chiranjeevi is the son of Konidala Venkata Rao and Anjana Devi. He has four siblings, two brothers and two sisters. Chiranjeevi is married to Surekha and they have two lovely daughters, Susmita and Sirija and a son Ram Charan Tej.
Chiranjeevi's family is into acting. His own brothers, Nagendra Babu and Pawan Kalyan are in the film industry. His brother-in-law, Allu Aravind is a producer and his father-in-law, Allu Ramalingaiah is a veteran actor. His nephew, Allu Arjun, is also a Telegu actor.
Although belonging to a family of film stars, there is no doubt to the fact that Chiranjeevi is by far the greatest of them all. Chiranjeevi was always interested in acting. To follow his passion and to train his skills as an actor, Chiranjeevi studied at the famous Madras Film Institute. He made a modest debut in the film Pranam Khareedu in 1978. Although he played a small role in this movie, Chiranjeevi was nonetheless liked by the audience. Few flop films followed after this in which Chiranjeevi played certain minor roles but success soon came to this megastar. The movie Khaidi (1983) under the direction of A. Kodandarami Reddy, was such a huge hit that Chiranjeevi was overnight turned into a super star. He was paired opposite Madhavi in this movie. Chiranjeevi gained a big fan-following after this movie.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Chiranjeevi continued to churn out one block-buster movie after another. Fondly called Chiru and Mega Star by his fans, Chiranjeevi kept on entertaining his followers with films like Rudraveena, Chantabbai, Intiguttu, and Subhalekha. His other hits are Abilasha, Adavidonga, Challenge, Gang Leader, Master, Kondaveeti Donga, Kodama Simham, Indra and Tagore.
Chiranjeevi's talents as an actor are not just limited to Telegu films. He is equally popular in Hindi film industry. His lead role in Pratibandh released in 1990 made him popular in Bollywood.
With more than 132 films to his credit, Chiranjeevi is now a cult-figure in Telegu film industry and his fan following is awesome. Many awards have been given to this legendary actor for his immense contribution to the film industry. These are as follows:
Apart from being a superstar, Chiranjeevi is also noted for his charitable services. On October 2, 1998, he founded the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust (CCT), which maintains the Chiranjeevi Blood and Eye Banks. The Blood Bank of the CCT helped more than 80,000 people and the Eye Bank has helped about 1000 people in the state of Andhra Pradesh to gain back their sights.
