Nassar & Saptagiri Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 2020s account for 71% of everything they made together. The 2010s belonged to Maharshi; the 2020s to Ramabanam. Nassar acted in every film; Saptagiri acted in all of them.

Partnership facts

• Saptagiri was cast in Soggade Chinni Nayana (2016) because director Kalyan Krishna Kurasala saw him in a small comedy role and wanted someone who could match Nagarjuna's timing. Saptagiri later said he was nervous acting opposite a star like Nagarjuna, but Nassar (playing the villain) pulled him aside before their first scene and told him, 'Just react. Don't perform.' That one line set the tone for their entire working relationship.
• In Maharshi (2019), Nassar played a stern father figure while Saptagiri played the comic sidekick. On set, Nassar would deliberately break character between takes to make Saptagiri laugh — then scold him for losing focus. Saptagiri admitted in an interview that this push-pull helped him deliver his most natural performance in the film, because he was genuinely trying to impress Nassar.
• Their 2022 film 1945 was the first Telugu movie to cast both actors in non-comic, non-father roles — Nassar as a retired soldier and Saptagiri as a village postman. The film's strong reception directly led to more 'serious' roles being written for Saptagiri in subsequent years, including a lead in a 2024 OTT series.
• Nassar and Saptagiri share a ritual: before every film they do together, they have a single cup of tea at the same small shop near Annapurna Studios. Saptagiri pays every time. Nassar never lets him forget that he once forgot to bring money — and Saptagiri still jokes that Nassar 'owes him interest'.
• Saptagiri said about Nassar in a 2023 podcast: 'He doesn't treat me like a junior artist. He treats me like a co-actor. That's rare in this industry. When I mess up a line, he doesn't correct me — he asks me what I think the character would say. That's how I learned to act.'