Nandamuri Balakrishna

Biography

Nandamuri Balakrishna, widely referred to as Balayya or NBK, is an Indian actor, film producer, and politician who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Born on June 10, 1960, in Madras (present-day Chennai), Tamil Nadu, he is the sixth son of legendary actor and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. T. Rama Rao. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce from Nizam College in Hyderabad before embarking on a full-time cinematic career.

He entered films as a child artist at age 14 with *Tatamma Kala* (1974) and debuted as a solo lead in *Sahasame Jeevitham* (1984). Over a career spanning more than five decades and over 100 films, he achieved massive commercial stardom with iconic blockbusters across mythological, socio-fantasy, and high-voltage faction drama genres. His landmark films include *Mangammagari Manavadu* (1984), *Muddula Mavayya* (1989), *Lorry Driver* (1990), the pioneering sci-fi classic *Aditya 369* (1991), *Bhairava Dweepam* (1994), *Samarasimha Reddy* (1999), *Narasimha Naidu* (2001), *Simha* (2010), *Legend* (2014), *Gautamiputra Satakarni* (2017), *Akhanda* (2021), *Veera Simha Reddy* (2023), and *Bhagavanth Kesari* (2023).

A three-time winner of the Nandi Award for Best Actor (*Narasimha Naidu*, *Simha*, and *Legend*), he has also received South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA) and the Filmfare South Award. Beyond cinema, he is an active politician representing the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Hindupur constituency and serves as the Chairman of the Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital & Research Institute in Hyderabad.