Happy Birthday Chiranjeevi: 11 lesser-known facts about Megastar

Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad, popularly known as Chiranjeevi, is one of the biggest names in the Telugu film industry and a politician. The Telugu icon has starred in over 150 Telugu feature films, and some in Kannada, Hindi, and Tamil. On his 67th birthday, let’s have a look at some interesting facts about the Telugu megastar:

Chiranjeevi is not an accidental actor; he had the vision of becoming an actor since childhood and had got proper training from Asia's first-ever film and television training institute, Madras Film Institute before entering showbiz. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Chiranjeevi made his cinema debut in the year 1978 with ‘Pranam Khareedu’ and rose to stardom in Telugu film industry due to his hard work and love for cinema. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Chiranjeevi was the first South Indian actor to be invited to the Oscars award ceremony. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invited him to attend the prestigious function in 1987. Credit: Instagram/chiranjeevikonidela

Chiranjeevi was one of the actors of Indian cinema who enjoys a fan following all across the globe. His movie ‘Kodama Simham’ (1990) was the first South Indian movie to be dubbed into English. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Chiranjeevi received a paycheck of 1.25 crore as remuneration in the 1992 film ‘Aapadbandhavudu’. Apparently, this was the first time when a Telugu actor was paid such a huge amount for acting in a movie. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Chiranjeevi's film ‘Gharana Mogudu’ (1992) set the cash registers ringing at the box office and collected over Rs 10 crore within a year. This was the first time in the history of Telugu cinema that a movie had collected such a huge amount in a year. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Chiranjeevi was approached for a Hollywood film ‘The Return of the Thief of Baghdad’ in 1999. However, the movie was stalled in the middle for unknown reasons. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Chiranjeevi was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in the year 2006 for his immense contribution in the field of entertainment. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

With a career spanning over four decades, Chiranjeevi is among the highest taxpayers in the country when it comes to paying income tax. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com

Undoubtedly Chiranjeevi is the Megastar of the Telugu film industry, but apart from Tollywood, he has also worked in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films. He had shared screen space with cine stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan. Credit: www.kchiranjeevi.com