Puri Jagannadh

Biography

Best known for his commercially storytelling abilities acclaimed writer-director Puri Jagannadh was born September 1, 1966 in Kothapalli, Andhra Pradesh, India. Over the course of 20 years of filmmaking, Puri Jagannadh has gone from small budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made on Indian silver screen making heroes to super stars through his films! Director Puri Jagannadh is considered as the Star Maker & Path Breaker of Tollywood. His dynamism in crafting each & every character of his films,his ease in redefining attitude, characterization & mannerism of all his actors, his super race screenplay and above all his command of dialogues & stories etc., made him one of the most successful directors of his time! Hailed by his numerous fans & admirers as “Guruji” ,”The Star Maker” ,”The Rebellion” and “Gun of Words”, he is famous for his films with sensible screenplay and dialogues without missing the commercial aspects required to acquire the Box office. Puri Jagannadh is well known for his mark way of filmmaking. His biggest USP is the power of his pen and the rapid speed with which he shoots any and all his film.He is known as ‘The’ Super fast director of Tollywood,ever! An it’s well known fact that any actor or actress who works with him will get a 360 degree change over, right from the attire to their attitude in the film which indeed makes him a hot selling cake in the market. It’s the doors of Puri Jagannadh which gets the knock by any star(s) or producers who wants to introduce their heir to the film industry. Puri Jagannadh has introduced many actors & actress like Ram Charan,Sai Ram Shanker,Puneeth RajKumar of Kanada,Anuksha Shetty( The Bahubali fame) Ameesha Patel, Renu Desai,Asin Thottumkal,Rakshita,Ayesha Takia, Haniska Motwani,Neha Sharma,Aah Sharma,Aditi Arya, Kangna Ranaut, etc all later went on to become superstars in both South and North film Industry. He is considered as the Golden Hand for actors & actress of Tollywood. Right from the age of 7 years, Puri Jagannadh started writing short stories out of his interest and was an ardent book reader from his very childhood. By the age of 14 he almost read the holy Mahabharath,Bhagavad Gita, writing of the renowned writers & social philosophers like Gudipati Venkatachalam,Muppala Ranganayakamma etc,., which helped him to develop a strong character of his own and to develop his very own style & perspective of looking at things. He started his career as an assistant director to Ram Gopal Varma and had worked for several Telugu films like Shiva(1990) Ninne Pelladata (1996) His Telugu directorial debut, Badri (2000) was a blockbuster, starring Pawan Kalyan in the lead role, along with Renu Desai, Prakash Raj, and Amisha Patel in supporting roles. In 2006, Puri Jagannadh captivated audiences big time with his Action-Thriller ‘Pokiri(2006) starring Mahesh Babu which he directed and produced. The commercial action thriller was a blockbuster, earning a distributor’s share of Rs. 420 million. The film grossed Rs. 660 million worldwide and remained the highest-grossing Telugu film for three years and smashed all the previous records of all the films till date it was released. The same film was remade into various languages like Hindi,Tamil, Kanada etc by stars like Vijay (Tamil) Salman Khan (Hindi) & Darshan (Kanada) which too became super sensation hits. Pokiri’s success all over catapulted Puri Jagannadh to nationwide recognition and every super star from all parts of the country urged to work with him,at least once. Pokiri, premiered at the 7th IIFA Film Festival held in Dubai. Puri Jagannadh made many super duper commercial blockbusters hits throughout starting from his very first film ‘Badri'(2000) and carried the legacy by ‘Itlu Sravani Subramanyam'(2001) ‘Appu’ (2002) ‘Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi’ (2003) ‘Sivamani'(2003) 143 (2004) ‘Pokiri’ (2006) ‘Desamuduru’ (2007) ‘Chirutha’ (2007) ‘Bujjigadu'(2008) ‘Neninthe(2008) ‘Ek Niranjan’ (2009) ‘Businessman(2012)’ ‘Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu’ (2012) ‘Iddarammayilatho'(2013) ‘Heart Attack’ (2014) ‘Temper’ (2015) ‘ISM’ (2016) ‘Paisa Vasool’ (2017) etc.,which all went to become biggest blockbusters with a bombastic bang at Box Office making Puri Jagannadh one of the most super successful commercial directors of South Indian Film Industry. He produces films under his own production companies, ‘Puri Jagannadh Touring Talkies’, ‘Puri Connects’ & ‘Vaishno Academy’. He bankrolled many films on his own like Idiot(2002) , Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi(2003) Sivamani(2003) 143(2004) Pokiri(2006) Heart Attack (2014) etc., and all turned out to super successful at box office which not only made him a successful director but also proved him to be a successful producer too. In the year 2011, Puri Jagannadh made ‘Bbuddah… Hoga Terra Baap’ with Indian Super Star and world wide renowned actor “Amitabh Bachchan” and the film turned out to be a blockbuster in B-town and Puri Jagannadh sent a strong shock wave to B-town through his dialogues, taking and by the way he could see and present Amitabh Bachchan as a anger young man, with a whole new different attire and attitude. In his 20 years in film fraternity, he has made 33 films (with 90% success rate) which by itself is a unbeatable record for any director of his time period to break. One Film on shot, one on pre-production and one on post production, this is how Puri Jagannadh tends to work, nonstop! To stop or to rest is something he doesn’t believe in! There were many a times where he had 3 releases a year. At present Puri Jagannadh is making a launch film for none other than his very own son ‘Akash Puri’ entitles ‘Mehbooba’ which is slated to be a high intense love story on the backdrop of 1971 Indo-Pak war, which is one of the most awaited film in South Indian. ‘Mehbooba’ fetched nationwide attention & grabbed the eyeballs of the people throughout the nation with it’s teaser which got released recently, for the span,standard of making & for the breathtaking visuals in it,which is being produced by Puri Jagannadh himself on his home banner ‘Puri Connects’ Owned Production Houses: Puri Jagannadh Touring Talkies Puri Connects Vaishno Academy Puri Sangeet

Filmography

Movie Name Release Date
iSmart Shankar July 17, 2019