Nandamuri Kalyan Ram

Kalyan Ram was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, to Nandamuri Harikrishna and his first wife, Lakshmi Kumari. He is the grandson of actor and politician N. T. Rama Rao. His half-brother, N. T. Rama Rao Jr., is also an actor. Ram was schooled at St. Pauls, Hyderabad and KCP Siddardha Adarsh Residential School, Vijayawada. He obtained his engineering degree in Coimbatore and completed masters in Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Though he desired to join the film industry immediately after engineering, he pursued masters on the insistence of his father who wanted him to be first person in their family to earn a post-graduate degree.^[2]

In 1989 Ram acted with his uncle Nandamuri Balakrishna in the film Bala Gopaludu as a child artist.^{[citation needed]} Later, he started his acting career in 2003 with Tholi Choopulone followed by Abhimanyu, which were both commercial failures. In 2005, he established his own banner N.T.R. Arts under the name of his grandfather N. T. Rama Rao known as 'NTR'.^[3] He then produced Athanokkade, which introduced Surender Reddy as a director, and it was a critical and commercial success. His next films Asadhyudu, Lakshmi Kalyanam and Vijayadasami bombed at the box office. However, his 2008 release Hare Ram became a critical and commercial success. His 2009 release Jayeebhava and 2010 release Kalyanram Kathi emerged as commercial failures. In 2013, Ram produced and starred in Om 3D which was touted as India's first 3D action film and was released in late summer^[when?] 2013.^[4] Despite the hype, the film ended up as a commercial failure.^[5]

In 2015, Ram starred in Pataas which turned out to be a blockbuster with positive reviews.^[6] For the first time, he produced a film without himself as the lead, titled Kick 2 under N.T.R. Arts. It stars Ravi Teja as a lead, and is directed by Surender Reddy, which turned out to be a flop at the box office.^[7] Ram's later release for 2015 featuring him as the lead was Sher opposite actress Sonal Chauhan. It was directed by Mallikarjun and was produced by Vijayalakshmi Pictures.^[8]

In 2016, Ram produced and starred in Puri Jagannadh's Ism as an undercover journalist.^[9] In 2018, he acted the lead role in the film MLA^[10] and Naa Nuvve. In 2019, he played the role of his father Nandamuri Harikrishna in the films N.T.R: Kathanayakudu and N.T.R: Mahanayakudu. He then proceeded to star in K. V. Guhan's 118 along with Shalini Pandey and Nivetha Thomas.^[11] The film became a critical and commercial success.^[12][13]

Ram's next release was the 2020 film Entha Manchivaadavuraa directed by Satish Vegesna of Sathamanam Bhavati fame. It is an official remake of the Gujarati-language film Oxygen.^[14]

Ram stars in the 2023 film Devil: The British Secret Agent.^[15]

Ram married Swathi on 9 August 2006.^[16] They have two children, a son and a daughter.^[17]