Prakash Raj & Akkineni Nagarjuna Movies Together List — 8 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 75% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Azad; the 2010s to Oopiri. Prakash Raj acted in every film; Akkineni Nagarjuna acted in all of them. Mostly Telugu, with 3 films in Tamil.

Partnership facts

• Their first film together, Azad (2000), almost didn't happen. Nagarjuna was initially hesitant to play a negative role, but Prakash Raj — who was already cast as the villain — convinced him to take the leap by promising they'd make the character iconic together.
• In Shivamani (2003), Prakash Raj played the ruthless antagonist while Nagarjuna was the hero. On set, Prakash Raj would deliberately stay in character between takes — refusing to smile or chat — to keep Nagarjuna genuinely on edge during their confrontation scenes.
• Their double role in Payanam and Gaganam (2011) — the same script shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil — created a rare industry precedent. No other actor pair had ever committed to filming two language versions back-to-back with the same director, and it inspired later bilingual experiments like the Thani Oruvan remake cycle.
• During the making of Oopiri (2016), Nagarjuna and Prakash Raj would spend every lunch break together in a corner of the set, discussing their kids' school reports and cricket scores. The crew called them 'the uncles' because they acted like old friends catching up, not co-stars rehearsing lines.
• Prakash Raj once said about Nagarjuna: 'He is the only hero who never once asked me to tone down my performance. He wanted me to be louder, bigger — because he knew that would make his own character look stronger.' He said this during the Oopiri promotions.