Kota Srinivasa Rao & Mukesh Rishi Movies Together List — 10 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 60% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Kantri; the 2010s to Maharshi. Kota Srinivasa Rao acted in every film; Mukesh Rishi acted in all of them. Strictly Telugu cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• They first shared screen space in Kantri (2008) because director V. V. Vinayak specifically wanted a villain who could match Jr. NTR's energy in the climax. Mukesh Rishi was the first choice, but he insisted on bringing Kota Srinivasa Rao along for the comedy track — the two had already bonded on a Hindi film set years earlier.
• In Rachcha (2012), Kota Srinivasa Rao played the comic sidekick to Mukesh Rishi's menacing don. The trick was simple: Mukesh would deliver his lines dead serious, and Kota would react with a delayed, exaggerated laugh — that one-second gap became the scene's signature beat. Audiences in Andhra still mimic that laugh.
• Their pairing in Basthi (2015) directly inspired the 2017 comedy-drama 'Jai Simha' — the producer saw their test footage and greenlit a full-length film built around a similar old-guard vs. new-threat dynamic. That film later launched a catchphrase ('Basthi lo bhoothu') that went viral on Telugu YouTube.
• On the sets of Namo Venkatesa (2010), the two shared a single caravan — not because of budget, but because they'd spend hours between shots playing carrom. Kota always won, but Mukesh never let him forget the one time he lost. They still joke about it at industry events.
• "Kota garu is the only actor who can make me forget my lines. He'll throw a random dialogue in Telangana slang, and I'll just stand there laughing — the director keeps the camera rolling because that reaction is gold." — Mukesh Rishi, in a 2019 interview with Sakshi Post about Maharshi.