Superstar Mahesh Babu completed 17 glorious years in the film industry as a hero. His debut film as fullfledged hero Rajakumarudu completed 17yrs of release this August 31st.

Mahesh, the successor of Superstar Krishna was a proven talent right as a child artist. After 9 films as child artist, Mahesh took a long break from the year 1990. After a hiatus of 9yrs, Darsakaratna K Raghavendra Rao introduced him to the industry with youthful entertainer Rajakumarudu. Gutsy producer C Ashwini Dutt produced this film under Vyjayanthi Movies banner with a huge budget and Bollywood beauty Preity Zinta featured along with him.

Mahesh was welcomed by Superstar fans in a big way. Moreover, Mahesh even won the prestigious Nandi award for Best Debut (Male) that year for his performance in Rajakumarudu and the film turned out to be a hit minting nearly Rs 10.51 Cr at box office. It was later dubbed into Hindi as Prince No.1 & Kaadhal Vennila in Tamil.

And in the career span of 17 years as a hero, Mahesh featured in 22 films so far and rose to the level of a “Superstar” today. From a box-office stamina of mere Rs 10Cr, Mahesh commands the position of ‘Rs 100Cr hero’ today with his sheer talent and following. Over the years, Mahesh grew as an actor and a star but he is still the simple and humble star even today. As they rightly say Mahesh is not a name…it’s a Brand!

Wishing him good luck on his upcoming 23rd film with Murugadoss!