Ravi Babu

Ravi Babu is an Indian actor, director and producer in the Telugu film industry. He has directed 12 films, produced five, acted in some of them and written all of them. As an actor, he has starred in over 75 films in varied roles as villain, comedian, and comedic villain.[1]

Ravi Babu
Born	Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, writer
Years active	2000-present
Spouse(s)	Tanuja
Parent(s)	Chalapathi Rao
Website	ravibabu.com

Early life

He is the son of veteran Telugu film actor Chalapathi Rao and is the eldest of three siblings. His primary schooling was at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan in Chennai and he later studied English Literature at the Presidency College, Chennai. He graduated with an MBA from the Symbiosis International University, Pune. He later took an off-beat offer of working as a production assistant to an ace advertising film-maker.

Career

Early career

As an assistant to Rajiv Menon Babu had to carry lenses, cameras and boxes. Within a few months, he was promoted as an assistant director and an assistant cameraman. Six months later, Babu enrolled in an advanced cinematography course at the Film and Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine, but quit shortly. He was offered a job as a cameraman by the India Broadcasting Network in New York. On the job he picked up editing as a skill. His work caught the attention of some executives at Sony and they invited him to do a course at the Sony Institute in San Jose, California. After the course, Babu did a short stint at TV Asia as ENG producer and also doubled up as cameraman and editor.[2]

Babu's return to India saw producer D. Ramanaidu and director E. V. V. Satyanarayana offer him films, for acting. Acting in movies out of Hyderabad and Bangalore, he kept in touch with his primary passion of film making through advertising. He was directing television commercials for the production house Autumncart. In 1999, he started his own production house, Flying Frogs, initially to produce television commercials, but would later become a feature film production house.[3]

Actor

Babu's first films were Maavidakulu, directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana and Sivayya, produced by D. Ramanaidu, where he played a main villain in both the movies, these were major blockbusters at the box office and offers started pouring in for Ravi Babu as the bad guy. He went on to act in more than 75 films with films like Murari, Anasuya, Yavarum Nalam, Dochay Swamy Ra Ra and Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, fetching critical acclaim.

Director, writer and producer

In 2002, Babu launched himself as a film-director. His first Tollywood film was Allari, which was shot in 45 days on a shoestring budget. The film had a coming-of-age theme and a host of new faces for the cast, Babu created funny urban imagery with colourful visuals and commendable performances by many first-timers set to foot-tapping music by Paul J. Allari, it was released on 10 May 2002, and it was distributed by Suresh Films.

Babu started work on Ammayilu Abbayilu with more mature actors like Sonu Sood, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, and technicians like Chakri and Marthand K. Venkatesh. The film turned out to be a musical success at the box office. Ammayilu Abbayilu was released on 30 January 2003. Soggadu is Babu's third film starring the romantic pair Tarun and Aarthi Agarwal. Suresh Babu produced the film, which brought in bigger budgets. The film got good reviews in Tollywood, but received mixed success at the box office. Soggadu was later re-made into Hindi by Rajkumar Santoshi as Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

In 2006, Babu made Party, a film that revolved around ambitious corporate executives who are dreaming up billion-dollar silicon valley ventures that will become the next Microsoft and Google. The film's release coincided with the rise of India as the new IT hub and was well received at the multiplexes. In 2007, he made Anasuya, a suspense-crime thriller with a story line of a lady journalist who is following the trail of a macabre serial killer who is stealing body organs of his victims. The film was remade in Kannada and Malayalam.

In 2009, Babu found producer Ramoji Rao of Ushakiran Movies, who backed him in a family-based romantic entertainer – Nachavule. The film picked up three Nandi Awards. also 2009 saw the release of another thriller Amaravathi, in which Babu returned to the genre of crime and suspense with Bhumika Chawla, Sneha and Taraka Ratna.

In 2010, Babu directed Manasara, a love story set against the backdrop of Kerala with action based on the ancient martial art of Kalaripayattu. The film had writers Parachuri brothers pen dialogues and a screenplay by Satyanand. Prakash Babu Kadiyala produced the film set in the sylvan surroundings of Kerala.

In 2011, Babu made another college-oriented entertainer – Nuvvila, produced again by Ramoji Rao, which released on 3 November 2011. The film introduced Yami Gowtham, a Bollywood model and a number of youngsters in roles that largely reflected the dilemmas of modern-age youth.

In 2012, Babu made another out of the box film with Avunu (Yes!). It was a spooky thriller where an unseen ghostly presence loomed large over the heroine, Poorna (Shamna Kasim).

In 2014, Babu teamed up with Allari Naresh to create a comic story Laddu Babu. It shows Naresh as a morbidly obese youth with a tender heart. The film won critical acclaim, but got a mixed response at the box office. In 2015, Ravi Babu returned with a sequel to Avunu, titled Avunu 2.

Advertising career

Babu wrote and directed an advertising campaign with actress Tamannah for Celkon phones. He also created an advertising campaign for Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the last election.[4][5]

Personal life

Ravi Babu is married to Tanuja, a school teacher. They have two children and live in Hyderabad.

Filmography

As director

No	Year	Film	Actors	Language	Awards	ref
1	2002	Allari	Allari Naresh, Swetha Agrawal, Nilambari	Telugu		[6]
2	2003	Ammayilu Abbayilu	Vijay, Mohit, Sonu Sood, Devina	Telugu		[7]
3	2005	Soggadu	Tarun , Arti Agarwal	Telugu		[8]
4	2006	Party	Allari Naresh, Shashank, Madhu Sharma, Brahmanandam	Telugu		[9]
5	2007	Anasuya	Abbas, Bhoomika Chawla, Nikitha, Ravi Babu	Telugu		[10]
6	2008	Nachavule	Tanish, Maadhavi Latha	Telugu	Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actress - Raksha Nandi Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Geetha Madhuri Nandi Award for Best Female Dubbing Artist - R Haritha	[11][12][13][14][15]
7	2009	Amaravathi	Sneha, Bhumika Chawla, Sindhura Gadde, Taraka Ratna	Telugu	Nandi Award for Best Villain - Taraka Ratna Nandi Award for Best Cinematographer - Sudhakar Reddy	[16][17]
8	2010	Manasara	Sri Divya, Bhanu Chander, George Vincent, Ramaraju	Telugu		[18]
9	2011	Nuvvila	Havish, Ajay, Yami Gautam, Vijay Deverakonda, Prasad Barve	Telugu		[19]
10	2012	Avunu	Harshvardhan Rane, Poorna, Ravi Babu	Telugu		[20]
11	2014	Laddu Babu	Allari Naresh, Bhumika Chawla, Poorna, Kota Srinivasa Rao	Telugu		[21]
12	2015	Avunu 2	Harshvardhan Rane, Poorna, Ravi Babu, Sanjjanaa	Telugu
13	2018	Adhugo	Ravi Babu	Telugu
14	2019	Aaviri	Ravi Babu	Telugu

As actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Maavidaakulu	Muddu Krishna
	Pellaadi Choopista
	Love Story 1999
	Tholi Prema	Villain
1999	Sultan	Noor
	Neti Gandhi
2000	Vamshoddharakudu	Ashok
	Chala Bagundi
	Jayam Manadera	Ravindra Naidu
2001	Murari	Bulabbayyi
2003	Ammayilu Abbayilu
	Neeku Nenu Naaku Nuvvu
	Simhadri
2004	Pallakilo Pelli Kooturu
	Nenunnanu	Waltair Ravi
	Naani	Satyam's son
	Adavi Ramudu
2006	Party	James
2007	Madhumasam
	Aata
	Lakshyam	Pawan
	Tulasi
	Anasuya	"Gulabi Puvvu" Govind
2008	Swagatam	Padmakar Mudumba
	Kalidasu	Police Officer
	Victory	Laxman Rao
	Brahmanandam Drama Company
2009	Nachchav Alludu
	Amaravathi	Venkat
2010	Prateeroju
	Manasara...
2011	Mayagaadu
	Anaganaga O Dheerudu	Sudigundam
2012	Avunu	Captain Raju
	Racha
2013	Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu	Goodu Raju
	Mr. Pellikoduku
	Gundello Godari	Dora Babu
	Swamy Ra Ra	Durga Prasad
	Anthaka Mundu Aa Tarvatha	Sridhar
	Prema Oka Maikam
2015	Avunu 2	Captain Raju
	Dohchay	CI Richard
	Thanu Nenu
2016	Dictator	Director
	Savitri	Dora Babu
	Eedo Rakam Aado Rakam	Aadi Narayana
	Trivikraman	Trivikraman

Tamil

• Yavarum Nalam (2009) as Inspector Shiva
• Kuselan as Inspector

Kannada

• Durgada Huli (2000)
• Habba (1999)
• MangalyamTantunanena (1998)

References

1. "Ravi Babu". bookmyshow. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
2. "Interview with Ravi Babu by Jeevi". idlebrain. Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
3. "Interview with Ravi Babu by Jeevi". idlebrain. Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
4. "TDP uses Laddu Babu director". Filmcircle. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
5. "TDP's Ads Getting Hilarious Response!". cinejosh. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
6. "Interview with Ravi Babu by Jeevi". idlebrain.com. 26 April 2002. Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
7. "Ammayilu Abbayilu (2003)". FilmiBeat. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
8. "Soggadu Cast & Crew, Soggadu Telugu Movie Cast, Actor, Actress, Director - Filmibeat". FilmiBeat. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
9. "Party". FilmiBeat. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
10. "Anasuya". FilmiBeat. Archived from the original on 20 May 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
11. "Telugu Movie review - Nachavule!". idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
12. "Nachavule Movie Review". indiaglitz.com. 22 December 2008. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
13. "All About Nandi Awards". www.apsftvtdc.in. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
14. "Nandi awards 2008 announced". idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
15. "Nandi Awards 2008 announced". Indiaglitz.com. 24 October 2009. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
16. G. V, Ramana. "Amaravathi film review". idlebrain.com. Idlebrain. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
17. "Nandi Awards of Year 2009". greenmangos.net. Archived from the original on 29 October 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
18. "Telugu Movie review - Manasara". idlebrain. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
19. "Telugu Movie review - Nuvvila". idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
20. "Avunu movie review". NDTV movies. 29 September 2012. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012.
21. "Laddu Babbu Telugu Movie Review". Venditera.in. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.

External links

• Ravi Babu on IMDb