Pothineni Seetha Ram Chowdary, also known as Ram Pothineni (born 15 May 1988) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu Cinema. He has earned one Filmfare Award and one SIIMA Award for his work.
Pothineni made his acting debut with the box office success Devadasu (2006), for which he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut – South. He achieved his breakthrough in 2008 with the action comedy Ready (2008). Pothineni continued to establish himself as a leading man with critical and commercial successes such as Maska (2009), Kandireega (2011), Pandaga Chesko (2015), Nenu Sailaja (2016), Hello Guru Prema Kosame (2018) and iSmart Shankar (2019). Early life Ram Pothineni was born as Pothineni Seetha Ram Chowdary on 15 May 1988, in Hyderabad, to Murali Pothineni. He is the nephew of Telugu film producer, Sravanthi Ravi Kishore. Actor Sharwanand is his cousin. His family is from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
Career Debut and early career (2006–2010) Pothineni first appeared with his theatrical debut in 2006 with Devadasu.Telugu cinema trade report for the first half of year 2006 – idlebrain.com CineGoer.com – Box-Office Records And Collections – All Time Long Run List His second film, Jagadam opposite Isha Sahani was directed by Sukumar. He then appeared in Ready alongside Genelia D'Souza directed by Srinu Vaitla which was a commercial success. In 2009, he had two releases, Maska and Ganesh.
In 2010, Pothineni had only one release, Rama Rama Krishna Krishna, produced by Dil Raju and directed by Sriwass.
Career ups and downs (2011–2016) Pothineni's next film was Kandireega (2011). Later he starred in Endukante... Premanta! (2012) alongside Tamannaah, directed by Karunakaran and produced by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore. In 2013, Pothineni appeared in Ongole Githa with Kriti Kharbanda directed by Bhaskar and produced by B.V.S.N. Prasad. In the same year, he co-starred alongside Venkatesh in the action comedy Masala, the remake of the Hindi film Bol Bachchan, directed by K. Vijaya Bhaskar and jointly produced by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore and D. Suresh Babu.
In 2015, Pothineni starred in two films, Pandaga Chesko and Shivam . While Pandaga Chesko directed by Gopichand Malineni, was a commercial success, Shivam ended up as one of the biggest failures of his career.
In 2016, He had two releases, both produced by his own production house Sri Sravanthi Movies, Nenu Sailaja which was a commercial success and Santosh Srinivas-directed Hyper which was an average at the box office.
2017–present: Career fluctuations and decline
His 2017 coming-of-age film Vunnadhi Okate Zindagi received mixed reviews. In 2018, he starred in the romantic comedy Hello Guru Prema Kosame directed by Trinadha Rao Nakkina. In 2019, he collaborated with director Puri Jagannadh for the action thriller iSmart Shankar. The film became a commercial success for Pothineni after a series of failures. It grossed over , his career's highest grosser. His 2021 film was Red where he played a dual role, is a remake of Tamil film Thadam (2018). In 2022, he starred in the Lingusamy-directed The Warriorr where he played a police officer. The film received negative reviews from critics and was huge commercial failure.
He then starred in Skanda (2023) directed by Boyapati Sreenu. It opened to mixed-to-negative reviews from both the critics and audience, alike. It became the most-trolled Telugu film of its time and was prone to generation of multiple memes for its action sequences and dialogues. He next starred in the sequel to iSmart Shankar, Double iSmart, which released in 2024 to negative reviews. Unlike the prequel, it was highly thrashed by both the critics and audience, alike. It became his third consecutive box-office disaster.
He attempted to delineate himself from the commercial trappings of Telugu cinema, and starred in the romantic drama, Andhra King Taluka (2025), directed by Mahesh Babu Pachigolla of Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty (2023) fame. It opened to mixed reviews from the critics and audience, alike. Though his attempt to differentiate himself was lauded, the film ultimately ended up as an average grosser.
In May 2026, his newly formed production house by his brother, Krishna, and himself, RAPO Cinematics, announced his directorial RAPO23, a sci-fi psychological thriller. It was written and is being directed by himself.
Media image Pothineni has featured on Hyderabad Times Most Desirable Men list various times. He ranked 11th in 2017, 11th in 2018, 3rd in 2019 and 2nd in 2020. Pothineni did his first ever brand endorsement for Garnier alongside John Abraham.
Filmography As actor
All films are in Telugu, unless otherwise noted. Year Title Role(s) Notes 2006 DevadasuDevadas 2007 JagadamSeenu2008 Ready Chandu (Danayya) 2009 Maska Krishna "Krish" GaneshGanesh 2010 Rama Rama Krishna KrishnaRama Krishna 2011 Kandireega Srinivas "Sreenu" 2012 Endukante... Premanta!Krishna & RamDual role 2013 Ongole GithaDorababu (White) Masala Ram (Rehman) 2015Rey Narrator Voice role Pandaga Chesko Karthik Shivam Shiva (Ram) 2016 Nenu Sailaja Hari HyperSuryanarayana Murthy 2017 Vunnadhi Okate Zindagi Abhiram 2018Hello Guru Prema KosameSanju Also singer for "Idea Cheppu Friendu" 2019iSmart ShankarUstaad "iSmart" Shankar / Arun 2021 Red Aditya & Siddharth Dual roleRomanticHimselfCameo appearance in the song "Peene Ke Baad"2022The WarriorrSatyaTelugu-Tamil bilingual film 2023SkandaBhaskar Raju & SkandaDual role2024Double iSmartUstaad "iSmart" Shankar 2025Andhra King TalukaSagarAlso lyricist and playback singer2027TBATamil film; Filming TBAVeeraAlso Writer and Director
Accolades YearAwardCategoryWorkResult2002Europe Film Festival, SwitzerlandBest ActorAdayaalam2007Filmfare Awards SouthBest Male DebutDevadasu2008Filmfare Awards SouthBest Actor – TeluguReady2011Filmfare Awards SouthKandireega2020Zee Cine Awards TeluguSensational Star of the YeariSmart ShankarBest Actor202110th South Indian International Movie Awards
Notes
See also List of Indian male film actors List of dancers
References
External links