Brahmanandam & K. Raghavendra Rao Movies Together List — 17 Films

The shape of the work

The 1990s account for 76% of everything they made together. The 1990s belonged to Major Chandrakanth; the 2010s to Om Namo Venkatesaya. Brahmanandam acted in every film; K. Raghavendra Rao directed all of them.

Partnership facts

• Raghavendra Rao first cast Brahmanandam in 'Sundarakanda' (1992) after seeing his comic timing in a stage play. The director later admitted he had no idea Brahmanandam would become his go-to actor for the next 25 years.
• On the sets of 'Mugguru Monagallu' (1994), Raghavendra Rao would give Brahmanandam only a one-line situation — no written dialogue. Brahmanandam would then improvise entire comic sequences on the spot, and Rao would keep the camera rolling. That became their unspoken rule for every film after.
• Their devotional film 'Annamayya' (1997) was the first Telugu movie to gross over ₹10 crore in a single week. That success directly led to Raghavendra Rao making two more saint biopics with Brahmanandam — 'Shirdi Sai' (2012) and 'Om Namo Venkatesaya' (2017).
• Brahmanandam never called Raghavendra Rao 'sir' or 'director' — he called him 'anna' (elder brother) from their second film onwards. The actor once said Rao was the only director who let him eat lunch at his own table instead of the unit canteen.
• "Raghavendra Rao garu is the only director who gave me a role in every film he made for 25 years. He never asked me to change my style. He just said, 'Nuvvu nuvvu ga undu' (Be yourself)." — Brahmanandam, in a 2018 interview with Sakshi Post.