Ajay & Rao Ramesh Movies Together List — 16 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s belonged to Bharath Ane Nenu; the 2020s to Pushpa (The Rise Part-01). Ajay acted in every film; Rao Ramesh acted in all of them. Strictly Telugu cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Ajay and Rao Ramesh first shared screen space in 'Sye Aata' (2010), but their real partnership kicked off when director Krishna Vamsi cast them together in 'Rowdy Fellow' (2014) — a film that needed a sharp, tense father-son dynamic. Ramesh later said Ajay's intensity in that film made him raise his own game.
• In 'Bharath Ane Nenu' (2018), Ajay played the righteous CM and Rao Ramesh played his loyal advisor. Ramesh deliberately underplayed every scene — he told a behind-the-scenes crew that his job was to make Ajay look taller, both literally and figuratively, by staying quiet and still.
• Their pairing in 'Ala Vaikunthapuramulo' (2020) — where Ramesh played Ajay's strict but loving father — directly inspired the father-son dynamic in the 2022 Tamil hit 'Love Today'. Director Pradeep Ranganathan admitted in an interview that he rewatched their scenes to study how to balance comedy with emotional weight.
• On the sets of 'Howrah Bridge' (2018), Ajay and Rao Ramesh developed a ritual: before every scene together, they'd share a quick cup of chai and talk about old Telugu films. Ramesh later said those 5-minute chats were the only reason he survived the chaotic shoot schedule.
• "Ajay is the only actor who makes me forget I'm acting. When he looks at me in a scene, I don't feel like I'm performing — I feel like I'm actually his father or his friend." — Rao Ramesh, in a 2021 interview with The Hindu about their 9-film collaboration.