Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni

Shobu Yarlagadda was born in Gudivada in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh.^[1] He graduated in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Andhra University in 1992. He graduated in Agricultural Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1995. For over a year and a half, he worked as an Air Resources Engineer in Greater Los Angeles Area for California Air Resources Board. In 2001, he established Arka Media Works with Prasad Devineni.^[1]

Shobu Yarlagadda is the son-in-law of veteran director K. Raghavendra Rao.^[2][3]

In 2001, Yarlagadda established Arka Media Works; Arka means sun rays in Sanskrit. It produces television content in six languages (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Oriya, Bangla and Marathi).^[1] He has worked as line producer for films such as Morning Raga, and Anaganaga O Dheerudu. He was Executive Producer for films such as Bobby and Pandurangadu.^[4] Prasad Devineni produced Pallakilo Pellikoothuru.^[5]

Yarlagadda and Devineni serve as the board members of Arka Media Works. They produced the two part Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) which premiered at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) which premiered at the British Film Institute,^[6][7] while becoming the highest grossing Indian multilingual film franchise of all time globally with a cumulative box office earnings of approximately ₹1,800 crore (US$190 million).^{[8][9][10][11]} The first part of the Telugu film, The Beginning has received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film, and got nominated for Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film by the American Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.^[12] The second part has garnered the Telstra People's Choice Award at the 2017 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.^[13] The second part of the Telugu film, The Conclusion (2017) received the American Saturn Award for Best International Film, and the Australian Telstra People's Choice Award.^[13][14]