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Yarlagadda Sumanth Kumar (born 9 February 1975), known mononymously as Sumanth, is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is the eldest grandson of Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. He is also a partner in Annapurna Studios.[1]

Sumanth
Sumanth in 2021
Born	Yarlagadda Sumanth Kumar (1975-02-09) 9 February 1975 (age 47) Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana), India
Alma mater	Columbia College Chicago
Occupation	Actor producer
Years active	1999–present
Spouse	Keerthi Reddy ​ ​ (m. 2004; div. 2006)​
Relatives	See Daggubati-Akkineni Family

Sumanth's most notable films are Prema Katha (1999),[2] Yuvakudu (2000),

Satyam(2003)[3],Gowri (2004),[4]  Godavari (2006), Madhumasam (2008), Golconda High School (2011), Malli Raava (2017), and Sita Ramam (2022).

Background and early life

Sumanth was born in Hyderabad, India, on 9 February 1975.[5][6] He is the only son of Yarlagadda Surendra and Akkineni Satyavathi. He is the eldest grandchild of the Telugu film actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. A few months after his birth, Sumanth's parents returned to the US where they were residing. Sumanth, however, remained in India on the request of his grandfather Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who was then on a hiatus from films after a major heart surgery. The latter had often said that his busy acting career prevented him from fully experiencing fatherhood with his own children, so he wished to raise his first grandchild himself. Subsequently, Sumanth was adopted by his maternal grandparents.[7]

Family

Sumanth's father, Yarlagadda Surendra, is a former film producer, noted for having produced several hit films, such as Muchataga Mugguru (1985), Collector Gari Abbayi (1987), Rao Gari Illu (1988), Siva (1989), and Gaayam (1993). Sumanth, has One Younger Sister : Supriya, who is the executive director of Annapurna Studios. Actor Nagarjuna Akkineni is his maternal uncle; producer D. Ramanaidu is his uncle from his paternal side.^{[citation needed]} Producer Daggubati Suresh Babu and actors Venkatesh Daggubati, Rana Daggubati, Naga Chaitanya, Akhil Akkineni, and Sushanth are his relatives.[8]

In August 2004, Sumanth married former actress Keerthi Reddy. They, however, were divorced amicably in 2006.[9]

Education

Sumanth studied at the Hyderabad Public School, graduating in 1991. For his undergraduate studies, he enrolled in an engineering course in Michigan. Realising after two years that it wasn't in his best interest, he transferred to Columbia College Chicago, from where he graduated with a B. A. in Film Studies in 1997.[10]

Career

1999–2004

Sumanth debuted in Ram Gopal Varma's Prema Katha, which released on 15 April 1999. Despite the film's commercial failure, Sumanth's performance was well appreciated, and the film won critical acclaim and several Nandi Awards.[11] His next film, Yuvakudu (2000), directed by Karunakaran and co-starring debutant Bhumika Chawla, did positive business at the box office and was critically hailed as well. His third film Pelli Sambandham (2000) gave him the opportunity to act beside his grandfather Akkineni Nageswara Rao, and was directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. The film, however, managed only average business at the box office. The same was the case with Snehamante Idera (2001), where he was cast alongside his uncle Nagarjuna.

In 2003, he starred in his first blockbuster Satyam. It also happened to be Genelia D'Souza's debut Telugu film.[12] Satyam, which was produced by his uncle Nagarjuna, was one of the highest-grossing films of 2003–2004. Sumanth revealed that he was actively involved in the production and creative input for this film besides acting. Shifting genres, he followed up with another hit film, the action drama Gowri (2004), which gave him an action image.[13]

2005–2017

After the flop Dhana 51 (2005), and the above average Mahanandi (2005) alongside Anushka Shetty, Sumanth changed his path completely in 2006, starring in Sekhar Kammula's romantic comedy-drama Godavari. It remains one of the most acclaimed films in his career.[14] In addition to receiving rave reviews and box office success, it went on to win multiple Nandi and Filmfare awards.[15] Godavari was responsible in giving Sumanth an urban and NRI following, and is widely considered a modern-day classic.^{[citation needed]}

Sumanth's next film was the average running action/family drama Chinnodu (2006). In 2007, he starred in two movies: Madhumasam and Classmates. The former, a romantic comedy/drama alongside Sneha, produced by D. Ramanaidu and directed by Chandra Siddhartha, was a hit, whereas the latter did not fare too well, despite good reviews.[16] In early 2008, Sumanth's home production, the action/drama Pourudu alongside Kajal Aggarwal turned out to be a moderate success.[17] It was especially appreciated for its action sequences. However, his next film, the action/romance Boni alongside Kriti Kharbanda released in mid 2009, and failed at the box office.

In 2011, after a gap of almost a year, Sumanth took a rather bold turn by starring in Golconda High School, directed by the national award-winning Indraganti Mohan Krishna. It was based on the English novel The Men Within, written by ex-cricketer Harimohan Paruvu, and it is regarded to be one of the first sports dramas in Telugu.[18] Released on 15 January 2011, it garnered excellent critical acclaim and was declared a commercial hit as well. The critics as well as audience praised Sumanth's portrayal of a cricket coach with a chequered past, calling it one of his finest roles.[19]

Sumanth's next was the romantic drama Raaj, which released in March 2011, but failed miserably at the box office. Sumanth candidly admitted after release that he wasn't expecting much from this film as it was plagued with several problems during production. Following this, he starred in Daggaraga Dooranga (2011), a romance/ thriller under the direction of Ravi Kumar Chavali, and it was another failure. Later, Sumanth teamed up again with director Chandra Siddhartha for the romantic comedy Emo Gurram Egaravachu.[20] It released on 25 January 2014 to a lukewarm response from the audience. Sumanth's foray into the comedy genre however received fairly positive reviews from the critics.[21] Next came the romantic comedy Naruda Donoruda, the remake of the Hindi hit Vicky Donor. It released in November 2016, but this too did not fare well. Economic demonetization, which came into effect a few days after its release, was deemed one of the main reasons for its box office failure.

2017–present

After a series of disappointments, Sumanth made a strong comeback with the romantic drama Malli Raava, under the direction of Gowtam Tinnanuri. Released on 8 December 2017, it received positive reviews, and was a box office hit. Some critics even went to the extent of calling it his best film to date.[22] Sumanth's performance too was praised, and he won the best actor award from the Telugu Chamber of Film/Commerce. The film also won in the best film and best director categories.

Sumanth's next was a supernatural mystery/thriller Subrahmanyapuram, directed by debutant Santhossh Jagarlapudi. Released on 7 December 2018, it received mixed reviews and turned out an above par grosser. This was followed by the drama/thriller Idam Jagath (2018), which didn't fare too well. He was then seen donning the role of his grandfather Akkineni Nageswara Rao in the N. T. Rama Rao biopic NTR: Kathanayakudu, directed by Krish Jagarlamudi.[23] This film opened on 9 January 2019 to critical acclaim but was deemed a box office failure. Sumanth's portrayal in his first supporting role drew unanimous praise from all quarters.[24] He next starred in the investigative drama Kapatadhaari,[25] which released on 19 February 2021, to some positive critical acclaim,[26] and his performance as a traffic cop was generally applauded.[27]

His most recent film as a lead was Malli Modalaindi, a romantic comedy directed by Keerthi Kumar TG and produced by ED Entertainments released in February 2022 directly on the Zee5 streaming service.[28] Despite receiving mostly unfavorable critical reviews, it was declared a hit.[29]

He was most recently seen in a key supporting role in Sita Ramam (2022), a war romance drama starring Dulquer Salmaan.[30] This film was a runaway critical and commercial hit, and Sumanth's performance drew a lot of praise.[31]

Switching modes, Sumanth has now completed shoot for a gangster action comedy titled Waltair Seenu, in which he's playing the lead, and it is due for release soon. It is directed by Manu Yagnaa.[32] In addition, Sumanth is also playing the lead role in a drama thriller titled Aham Reboot that is written and directed by Prashant Sagar Atluri.[33] Sumanth has expressed an interest to diversify into playing author backed supporting and negative roles in the future, while parallelly doing lead roles.[34]

Filmography

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

As actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1999	Prema Katha	Suri	Debut in as lead role
2000	Yuvakudu	Siva
	Pelli Sambandham	Grandson
2001	Ramma Chilakamma	Kasi
	Snehamante Idera	Chandrasekhar "Chandru"
2003	Satyam	Satyam
2004	Gowri	Gowri Shankar
2005	Soggadu	Himself	Cameo appearance
	Dhana 51	Dhana
	Mahanandi	Shankar
2006	Godavari	Sreeram "Ram"
	Chinnodu	Chinna
2007	Classmates	Ravi Kiran IAS, (District Collector)
2008	Madhumasam	Sanjay
2009	Pourudu	Ajay
	Boni	DD
2011	Golconda High School	Sampath
	Raaj	Raaj
	Daggaraga Dooranga	Gowtham
2014	Emo Gurram Egaravachu	Bullebbai
2016	Naruda Donoruda	Vicky
2017	Malli Raava	Karthik
2018	Subrahmanyapuram	Karthik
	Idam Jagath	Nishith
2019	NTR: Kathanayakudu	Akkineni Nageswara Rao
	NTR: Mahanayakudu
2021	Kapatadhaari	Gowtham
2022	Malli Modalaindi	Vikram
	Sita Ramam	Brigadier Vishnu Sharma
TBA	Anangana Oka Rowdy	Waltair Seenu	Filming

As dubbing artist

• 83 (2021) for Ranveer Singh (Telugu dubbed version)[35]

References

External links

• Sumanth at IMDb
• Sumanth on Facebook

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