Rana Daggubati

Rana got engaged to his girlfriend, Miheeka Bajaj, founder of Dew Drop Design Studio, on May 21, 2020.

In 2019, he was signed for a mythological film 'Hiranyakashyapa' directed by Gunasekhar. In the movie, Rana will be playing the titular role of Hiranyakashipu.

In 2019, Rana bought a stake in the one of India's leading comic book companies, Amar Chitra Katha and turned director to the company that is backed by Future Group. In March 2019, he launched Amar Chitra Katha Alive - a state-of-the-art learning centre for art and design, life skills, performing arts and vedic science and ethics in Hyderabad.

In 2018, he entered into a Joint Venture with Kwan Entertainment and Marketing Solutions. Set up as a studio style agency, Kwan South's divisions include talent management casting, live performances and appearances, film packaging, production support- TV and Commercials, brand associations- endorsements, digital and film partnerships. In 2018, Kwan expanded with an office in Chennai.

In 2018, he also tied up with Anthill Ventures, an investment and scaling platform for early growth stage start-ups, to launch Anthill Studio. Anthill Studio is a business accelerator program focused on technology startups in Media & Entertainment. The studio supports and mentors disruptive startups in leading-edge technologies such as AI, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Blockchain, Visual Effects (VFX), Cloud Rendering, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data and Analytics.

Rana was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to Telugu film producer Daggubati Suresh Babu and is part of the Daggubati-Akkineni Family. His paternal grandfather was Tollywood film producer D. Ramanaidu. His paternal uncle Venkatesh and his cousin Naga Chaitanya are also actors in the film industry. Rana revealed in 2016 that he is blind in his right eye, and his left eye is a transplanted one. The surgery was done in L. V. Prasad Hospital, Hyderabad. Another surgery was done on his right eye when he was 14, but was unsuccessful. He did his schooling in Hyderabad and Chennai from Hyderabad Public School and Chettinad Vidyashram respectively. He later studied at St. Mary's College, Hyderabad. He lives with his family in Hyderabad.

He made his acting debut with the Telugu blockbuster Leader, for which he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut – South. He made his Hindi film debut with the hit film Dum Maaro Dum (2011), alongside Bipasha Basu, where he received positive reviews for his performance and won again Zee Cine Award for Best Male Debut. In 2012, Rana gained prominence by starring in hit Telugu film Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum. In 2015, he played a notable supporting role in the successful Hindi film Baby (2015). He later starred as the main antagonist in Telugu film Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), which recorded the second highest gross opening for an Indian film. He then featured in a supporting role in Tamil film Bangalore Naatkal (2016). In 2017, Rana later reprised his role as Bhallaldeva in Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which became the highest grossing Indian film of all time. He has also simultaneously starred in the successful Telugu movies Rudramadevi (2015), The Ghazi Attack (2017), and Nene Raju Nene Mantri (2017).

In 2013, he joined two big-budget projects, Gunasekhar's Rudhramadevi and S. S. Rajamouli's Baahubali, in which he is the lead antagonist. Rana played Bhallaladeva, the cousin of Baahubali, who had negative shades and received unprecedented appreciation from critics. Baahubali: The Beginning was released worldwide in July 2015 and was the highest-grossing film in India at the time of its release. The concluding film of the series Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, became the first Indian film to cross 1000 crore and is currently the second highest grossing Indian film. In 2017, he did India's first underwater film, The Ghazi Attack. It opened to very positive reviews.

He played a professional killer in the film Nenu Naa Rakshasi, under Puri Jagannath's direction, which was a box office bomb. His first release in 2012 was Naa Ishtam, which was followed by his second Hindi film Department. He next starred in Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, directed by Krish, which became a box office success. He made his debut in Tamil through Ajith Kumar's Aarambam. Rana did a cameo role in Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

Rana's first movie was Leader, in Telugu, directed by Shekhar Kammula, which is one of his biggest successes. Rana made his Bollywood debut with the film Dum Maaro Dum, which released on 22 April 2011. The Times of India called it a "dashing debut". He was voted "The Most Promising Newcomer of 2011" in the Times Of India poll. He was listed at number 20 on the Times of India's Most Desirable Men for the year 2011. In 2012, he was voted as the 10th most desirable man in India, in the poll conducted by The Times of India.

His stint in the film industry began with him working as a visual effects coordinator in around 70 films. And before he turned actor, he started his own production company, Spirit Media. He produced a National Award-winning film and then forayed into acting in 2010.

As a Visual Effects producer, Rana won the State Nandi Award for Best Special Effects in 2006 for the Telugu film Sainikudu. In 2006, he received the National Film Award for co-producing Bommalata – A Bellyful of Dreams.

Five years before turning into an actor, in 2005, Rana entered the visual effects business with Spirit Media P. Limited. The company that specialised in animation and VFX, produced special effects for over 70 films.

Ramanaidu "Rana" Daggubati (born 14 December 1984) is an Indian actor, producer, television personality, visual effects co-ordinator, and an entrepreneur known primarily for his work in Telugu language films, as well as for his work in Hindi and Tamil language films.