A big man who moves like a dancer and fights like something let out of a cage, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. is the gentle centre of RRR and the best case going for the Telugu mass hero. The films around him have not always deserved him.
Fi1m perspective
The first thing to know about N.T. Rama Rao Jr. is the size, and the second is what he does with it. In RRR (2022) he plays Komaram Bheem as a large, gentle man who fights like something let out of a cage, and the film's whole method rests on that gap: a body built for wreckage and a face that would rather not. He is a trained Kuchipudi dancer, and it shows less in the song sequences, where he has to move anyway, than in the stillness between them. He knows where his weight is.
He has been at it since childhood, with small appearances in the early 1990s and a lead debut in Ninnu Choodalani (2001). Student No: 1 (2001) and Aadi (2002) made him a star in Telugu cinema, and Simhadri (2003) began the partnership with S. S. Rajamouli that has now run to four films. What Rajamouli saw is what RRR confirms: a performer who can be asked to do anything physical and will do it without irony. Yamadonga (2007) had him change his body for the part and gave him monologues to deliver, and Adhurs (2010) had him play two men, a trick the Telugu mass film asks of its heroes and one he is good at.
The middle of the career was rougher. Ramayya Vasthavayya (2013) and Rabhasa (2014) were met coolly by audiences and critics alike, and it took Temper (2015), directed by Puri Jagannadh, to set him going again. Janatha Garage (2016) and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018) followed, the latter the sort of socially minded action drama that lets a star look serious while still hitting people. We have not reviewed these and will not pretend to; they are the films his admirers point to when they want to say the man was always there before the world noticed.
The world noticed with RRR, and rightly. Rajamouli gives him a friendship with Ram Charan's Raju that is the reason the film works, two men who like each other so much the plot has to prise them apart, and Rama Rao plays his half of it with an openness that makes Charan's shut face read as tragedy rather than sulk. The scene that got us was smaller than any of the set pieces: Bheem unable to find Malli, his face doing the grieving the script is too busy for. We had come for the spectacle and were undone by a man looking lost in a crowd. Not many action stars can do that, and fewer are asked to.
Devara: Part 1 (2024) gave him a double part again, as Devara and Vara, and the reviews were mixed. It raises the question his whole career raises: whether the films will ever ask as much of his face as they do of his shoulders. A Hindi debut in War 2 (2025) is next. We would like to see a director hand him a scene with nobody to hit in it. On the evidence of Bheem looking for Malli, he would know what to do with it.
Biography
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr., known as N. T. Rama Rao Jr. or Jr NTR, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He is the grandson of actor and politician N. T. Rama Rao.
He began as a child actor in Brahmarshi Viswamitra (1991) and Ramayanam (1997), the latter winning the National Film Award for Best Children's Film. He made his lead debut in Ninnu Choodalani (2001) and achieved early success with Student No: 1 (2001) and Aadi (2002). Subsequent hits include Simhadri (2003), Yamadonga (2007), Temper (2015), Janatha Garage (2016) and Brindavanam (2010).
Rama Rao Jr. gained wider recognition for his role as Komaram Bheem in RRR (2022). He has also hosted Telugu television shows and is a trained Kuchipudi dancer. He was born on 20 May 1983 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
