Ramanaidu "Rana" Daggubati (pronounced [ˈɾaː.ɳaː.daɡgu.baː.ʈi]; born 14 December 1984) is an Indian actor, film producer, and entrepreneur who primarily works in Telugu cinema, in addition to Tamil and Hindi films. He is a recipient of several accolades including a National Film Award, two Nandi Award, six SIIMA Awards and three Filmfare Awards South.
Son of film producer D. Suresh Babu, he made his acting debut with Leader (2010), for which he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He later starred in the Hindi film Dum Maaro Dum (2011), alongside Bipasha Basu, where he received positive reviews for his performance and won the Zee Cine Award for Best Male Debut. In 2012, Rana gained prominence by starring in the hit Telugu film Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum. In 2015, he played a notable supporting role in the successful Hindi film Baby (2015). He later starred as Bhallaladeva, the main antagonist in the Telugu-Tamil bilingual film Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), which recorded the second highest gross opening for an Indian film. In 2017, Rana later reprised his role as Bhallaladeva in Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which became the highest grossing South Indian film of all time. He has also simultaneously starred in successful films such as Rudramadevi (2015), Ghazi (2017), and Nene Raju Nene Mantri (2017).
As a visual effects producer, Rana won the State Nandi Award for Best Special Effects in 2006 for the Telugu film Sainikudu. In 2006, he received the National Film Award for co-producing Bommalata. Rana is also an established television personality, hosting award shows such as the 2nd IIFA Utsavam, the South Indian International Movie Awards. He also hosted talk shows No. 1 Yaari with Rana (2017–2021) and The Rana Daggubati Show. Alongside building a career in cinema, Rana is invested in businesses ranging from a business accelerator programme for technology startups, to an entertainment agency and a comic book company.
Daggubati became the board member of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image. Rana is described as one of the few actors in India who were able to achieve pan-Indian appeal, having taken up a variety of roles, from leading roles to supporting characters, in different languages.
Ramanaidu Daggubati was born on 14 December 1984 in a Telugu family to film producer D. Suresh Babu in Madras (present-day Chennai), Tamil Nadu. He was named after his paternal grandfather and movie mogul D. Ramanaidu. A member of the Daggubati–Akkineni family, his paternal uncle Venkatesh, maternal uncle Nagarjuna and his son (Daggubati's cousin) Naga Chaitanya are also actors. Rana revealed in 2016 that he is blind in his right eye, and his left eye is a transplanted one. The surgery was done in L. V. Prasad Hospital, Hyderabad. Another surgery was done on his right eye when he was 14, but was unsuccessful.
Rana did his early schooling in Chennai at Chettinad Vidyashram. He later shifted to Hyderabad, Telangana, where he studied at Nalanda Vidya Bhavan High School and The Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet. At Hyderabad Public School, he was classmates with Ram Charan, Sharwanand, Nikhil Siddharth, and Nag Ashwin. His enrolled for his collegiate studies at St. Mary's College, Hyderabad but eventually dropped out. He lives with his family in Film Nagar Hyderabad. He also owns a flat in Mumbai.
Rana's debut film as an actor in Telugu was Leader (2010), directed by Shekhar Kammula. It remains one of his highest grossers. In it, he plays the role of an aspiring Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. It opened to rave reviews from critics with his performance got much praise. A critic from The Times of India stated that "Another lineage star Rana takes his first bow at the BO with an inspiring political saga, a far cry from the formula-ridden films that his ilk usually begin with including his uncle and star Venkatesh." His performance in the film fetched him two awards – Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut – South and CineMAA Award for Best Male Debut. Rana made his Hindi debut with the film Dum Maaro Dum, alongside Bipasha Basu, Abhishek Bachchan and Prateik Babbar which released on 22 April 2011. where he received positive reviews for his performance and won the Zee Cine Award for Best Male Debut.The Times of India called it a "dashing debut". Taran Adarsh commented that "Much of the joy comes from watching Rana Daggubati infuse believability into his character. He's easy on the eyes and is a complete natural when it comes to acting." He won the Zee Cine Award for Best Male Debut for his performance in the film.
In his next Telugu film, Nenu Naa Rakshasi (2011), he played a professional killer Abhimanyu alongside Ileana D'Cruz, under Puri Jagannadh's direction It was a box-office bomb. A reviewer of NDTV wrote that "Rana's attempt to prove himself as a commercial hero has not taken off and he should wait for another break."
Rana had three releases in 2012. His first release of the year was the romantic action film Naa Ishtam. News 18 credited it as Rana's first "full-length commercial film." Radhika Rajamani of Rediff.com, in her review of the film, praised Rana' performance but criticised the screenplay. His next film was Department, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt. The film received mixed response from critics and was declared as a box-office bomb. His last release of the year was Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, directed by Krish, which became a box office success, also receiving critical acclaim. he plays the role of a theatre artist who later meets Devika (Nayanthara). an informer of the CBI, and takes revenge on Redappa/Chakravarthy (Murali Sharma/Milind Gunaji). A critic noted his performance as "brilliant" and "commendable". Karthik Pasupulate of The Times of India felt that, his performance in the film is his best one to date and is a few notches above everything else he's done to date. In July 2012, Rana signed do a "special appearance" in the film Arrambam, which his Tamil cinema debut.
The year 2013 was one of the busiest in his career. Rana made cameo appearances in three films – Sundar C's Something Something, Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Vishnuvardhan's Arrambam, with the latter being his Tamil debut. The same year, he joined two big-budget productions, Gunasekhar's Rudhramadevi and S. S. Rajamouli's Baahubali: The Beginning, the latter of in which he is the lead antagonist. Both the films were released in 2015. Rana did not have a single release in 2014.
In 2015, he starred in the Hindi film Baby, alongside Akshay Kumar and Taapsee Pannu. Rana played Bhallaladeva, the cousin of Baahubali (Prabhas), in the 2015 film Baahubali: The Beginning, which is part of Baahubali franchise. His character became widely popular and received unprecedented appreciation from critics. Rana was inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis to play the character. He described the film as "career-defining" for him. Baahubali: The Beginning was released worldwide in July 2015 and was the highest-grossing film in India at the time of its release. Made on a production budget of ₹ 180 crore, the film collected a worldwide gross of ₹650 crore at the box office. The film gave him several awards, including the Nandi Award for Best Villain and SIIMA Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role (Telugu). The film started a new film movement named Pan-India films. He next appeared in the film Rudhramadevi. It is a 3D biographical action film based on the life of Rudrama Devi, in which he played the role of Chalukya Veerabhadra. Although, the film did not performed well at the box-office, it received mixed reviews from the critics. Pranita Jonnalagedda felt that his character in the film is "underused". The same year, he appeared as himself in a cameo role in Dongaata (Telugu), Size Zero (Telugu) and Inji Iduppazhagi (Tamil).
The following year, he was a part of the Tamil film Bangalore Naatkal, In 2017, he starred in India's first submarine based Telugu-Hindi bilingual film, Ghazi. The film's plot is based on the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, in which he played Lieutenant Commander Arjun Varma. He shot for 18 days in a specially constructed underwater set. Hindustan Times's Gautaman Bhaskaran wrote that "Daggubati is wonderfully restrained – a complete changeover from the kind of parts he has been playing so far". Several other critics also praised his performance in the film.