“It was given to me in Rs 100 notes, and I remember feeling them in my pocket as I rode my bike back home.” That is how Nani described his first salary as an assistant director in an interview Koimoi later revisited, and the sum was Rs 4,000.
He has said he felt rich enough that evening to imagine buying half of Hyderabad. Today, the man who counted those notes is Telugu cinema’s Natural Star, an actor whom audiences describe as one of the industry’s most relatable, and his road there began far from any spotlight.
Learning cinema from behind the camera
Born Ghanta Naveen Babu in Hyderabad, Nani did not set out to act. Inspired by filmmaker Mani Ratnam, he wanted to direct, and producer Anil Kumar Koneru let him join the sets of Radha Gopalam (2005) as a clap assistant.
He then worked as an assistant director on Allari Bullodu, Dhee and Asthram, learning how a film comes together one shot at a time.
But before the camera found him, a microphone did.
A friend working at WorldSpace Satellite Radio offered him a job as a radio jockey, and he spent about a year hosting a programme called Non-Stop Nani.
According to The Times of India, the show made his voice familiar to listeners, although acting remained his greater ambition.
The films that put Nani on the map
In 2008, director Mohana Krishna Indraganti noticed Nani in an advertisement and cast him in Ashta Chamma, which gave him his lead-acting debut.
The romantic comedy, a free adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, was released on 5 September 2008 and earned Rs 6 crore as the distributors’ share, so the newcomer arrived with a success behind him.
Ride (2009) and Bheemili Kabaddi Jattu (2010), a remake of the Tamil film Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, kept the momentum going, with the latter becoming a surprise hit. Snehituda (2009) did not succeed, yet Nani kept getting lead roles, and in 2012 he won the Nandi Award for Best Actor for Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu, directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon.
Ala Modalaindi, a 2011 romantic comedy directed by Nandini Reddy, became his breakthrough.
In 2012, S S Rajamouli cast him in Eega, where Nani’s character returns as a fly to take revenge on the man who wronged him. The film earned over Rs 125 crore and won two National Film Awards, which showed how willingly Nani backed ambitious ideas.
How he became the ‘Natural Star’
The nickname arrived with Bhale Bhale Magadivoy in 2015. It was one of the few small-budget Telugu films to cross US$1 million at the box office, and it became the first blockbuster of his career. Nani won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor in Telugu for it, and audiences began calling him the Natural Star because his performances felt so unforced.
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What kept the title alive was the kind of person he chose to play. His characters are flawed people working through love, ambition, family and the uncertainties of ordinary life, so viewers tend to see themselves in them.
In Jersey (2019), he played a former cricketer who returns to the game for the sake of his young son, a performance that Film Companion placed on its list of the 100 greatest performances of the decade. In Hi Nanna (2023), he played a fashion photographer raising his daughter alone, and the film became a commercial success.
He also took risks with the image he had built. V (2020), his 25th film and first OTT release, cast him as a serial killer, his first negative role, and it became the most-watched Telugu film on streaming, according to Wikipedia’s account of his career.
The honours followed. Nani won the Filmfare Critics Award again for Shyam Singha Roy, which made him the only Telugu actor to win it twice. In 2024, he took home his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Telugu for Dasara at the 69th Filmfare Awards South, where he was also nominated for Hi Nanna.
His next project, The Paradise, reunites him with Dasara director Srikanth Odela.
For an actor who once measured success in a pocketful of Rs 100 notes, the journey suggests a career can be built one opportunity at a time, through patience, a willingness to try unusual roles, and a gift for looking like someone the audience already knows.
Sources:
‘Throwback To When Hi Nanna Fame Nani Opened Up About His First Salary In Film Industry‘: for Koimoi
‘Did you know The Paradise actor Nani started his career as CLAP assistant before becoming a star? The UNTOLD beginning of Ghanta Naveen Babu‘: by TOI Entertainment Desk for The Times of India
‘Winners of the 69th Sobha Filmfare Awards South 2024 – Telugu‘: for Filmfare
‘Rs 4,000/Month to Tollywood Star | Nani’s Journey’: by Video Team for The Better India, Published on 29 September, 2026
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com
