Venkat (actor)

Venkat is from Vijayawada and lived in Mumbai where he worked as a model during college and for his father's brand of shirts. His pictures in a magazine were noticed by Nagarjuna, who cast him in Sri Sita Ramula Kalyanam Chootamu Raarandi after the film's director Y. V. S. Chowdary wanted a new cast. The film was a box office success and got Venkat further film offers.^[2] His next films were the multistarrers Velugu Needalu (1999) and Prema Kosam (2000). During this period, he played Chiranjeevi's brother in Annayya (2000) and Jagapathi Babu's brother in Siva Rama Raju (2002).^[3] Regarding his performance in Annayya, a critic wrote that "Venkat is slightly on a backfoot as for as the dialogue delivery is concerned".^[4] He played supporting roles in Bhalevadivi Basu (2001), Anandam (2001), Siva Rama Raju (2002) and Madhyanam Hathya (2004).^[5] He returned as a lead with Charminar (2003), which was a box office failure. Regarding his performance, a critic noted that "Venkat's good physique and histrionic talent are wasted in this thankless role".^[6] He fractured his left leg while shooting for Kurukshetram.^[7]

He made his Hindi film debut under the stage name of Viraaj Kumar with the moderately successful Rafta Rafta – The Speed (2006) and made his comeback as a lead in Telugu with the thriller Konchem Kothaga (2008), which had a low-key release and received positive reviews from the audience.^[8][9] He played a police officer in Aa Aiduguru (2014).^[10] After a gap of six years, he returned with Run (2020) in the role of a cop.^[11]