Vijay Deverakonda

Deverakonda made his film debut by starring in Ravi Babu's romantic comedy Nuvvila in 2011, and then had a small cameo role in Sekhar Kammula's Life is Beautiful. Both films were decently successful but failed to give Deverakonda much recognition.[16] Then, he was introduced to an assistant director at the time, Nag Ashwin, who later cast him in a supporting role for the 2015 movie Yevade Subramanyam alongside actor Nani.[17] The film was produced by the daughters of Ashwini Dutt, a producer in the Telugu film industry. Priyanka Dutt backed him, and once shooting started, Swapna Dutt signed him onto her company.[18][19] The film went on to be a critical and commercial success, and Deverakonda won high praise for his diction, energy, and role in the movie. This movie finally gave him a much-desired break in Telugu cinema.

Deverakonda's first lead role was in Pelli Choopulu, a romantic coming-of-age entertainer directed by Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam, with Ritu Varma as the female lead. The film went on to be commercially successful[20] and won the Best Feature Film in Telugu[21] at the 64th National Film Awards as well as the Filmfare Award for Best Film - Telugu. He received praise for his realistic portrayal of a lazy and unmotivated chef. He then starred in a masala entertainer, Dwaraka in 2017. His next film Arjun Reddy received praise and criticism alike for being very bold and radical. Vijay's portrayal as a self-destructive, short-tempered, and alcoholic surgeon received critical acclaim, which led to him winning numerous awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu.[22][23] Following Arjun Reddy was Ye Mantram Vesave, which was delayed for 5 years and finally released. It was given poor reviews from critics and could not fare well at the box office. He then starred in Mahanati, a biographical period film around life of actress Savitri. He won acclaim for playing a charismatic and easy going photographer. Deverakonda's next release in 2018 was Geetha Arts' romantic comedy Geetha Govindam, in which he starred as an innocent and nervous college professor. Deverakonda received praise for playing a subtle, boy-next-door character after an aggressive role in Arjun Reddy. His next film, released on 5 October, was the Tamil political thriller NOTA, directed by Iru Mugan-fame Anand Shankar. It performed poorly at the box office.[24] His next project was UV Creations' supernatural comedy thriller Taxiwala in which Deverakonda stumbles upon a possessed car opposite Priyanka Jawalkar. In 2019, Deverakonda was seen in Bharat Kamma's Dear Comrade, a romantic action drama, once again alongside Rashmika Mandanna. His upcoming film is Kranthi Madhav's romantic drama titled World Famous Lover opposite Rashi Khanna, Catherine Tresa, Aishwarya Rajesh and Izabelle Leite.[25] He will next be seen in Hero, a Telugu film that will be dubbed in Tamil and Malayalam too. The movie will be directed by Anand Annamalai, co-writer of films like Kuttramae Thandanai and Kaakka Muttai. The film see Malavika Mohanan essay the role of Vijay's love interest. Deverakonda will be taking on the role of a biker in this film.[26][27]

Deverakonda was placed 72nd in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list 2018.[28] In 2019, Film Companion ranked Deverakonda's performance in Arjun Reddy among 100 Greatest Performances of the decade.[29]

Deverakonda is set to make his debut in Hindi cinema with Karan Johar produced multilingual film, Fighter. Directed by Puri Jagannadh and co-starring Ananya Panday, the film went on floors in January 2020.[30]