Raghu Babu & Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 2000s belonged to Kabaddi Kabaddi; the 2010s to Daggaraga Dooranga. Raghu Babu acted in every film; Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao acted in all of them. Strictly Telugu cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Kondavalasa was a theatre veteran when he met Raghu Babu on the sets of Kabaddi Kabaddi (2003). Raghu was already a known face, but Kondavalasa had never done a full comedy role in films before. Raghu insisted the director cast him as the sidekick — and that one decision turned Kondavalasa into a regular comic actor.
• In Current (2009), Raghu Babu played the loud, fast-talking friend while Kondavalasa played the slow, deadpan foil. Raghu would deliberately speed up his lines to throw Kondavalasa off rhythm — and Kondavalasa’s confused pauses became the joke. They never rehearsed together. They just fed off each other’s timing live on set.
• After every film wrap, Raghu Babu would take Kondavalasa to the same dhaba near Hyderabad’s Film Nagar. They’d order only two things: chicken fry and butter naan. Raghu always paid. Kondavalasa never once let him pay — but Raghu would slip the cash to the waiter before Kondavalasa could reach his wallet.
• Their double-act in Srirama Chandrulu (2004) was so popular that the director of Daggaraga Dooranga (2011) wrote the entire second half specifically as a two-man comedy track. No other actors were considered for those roles. The film’s producer later said the pair’s scenes alone saved the movie from a box-office disaster.
• Raghu Babu once said in an interview: 'Kondavalasa doesn't act. He just stands there and lets me do the work. But somehow, the audience thinks he's the funny one. I've stopped trying to understand it.'
• Their last film together, Panileni Puliraju (2016), almost didn't happen. Kondavalasa had a health scare two weeks before shooting. Raghu Babu pushed the entire schedule by a month and paid for Kondavalasa’s treatment out of his own pocket. They shot their scenes in three days flat.