Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (born 20 May 1983), also known as Jr. N.T.R or Tarak,[2][3] is an Indian film actor and television personality known for his works in Telugu cinema. He is the grandson of Telugu actor N. T. Rama Rao, who was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and who was commonly referred to as "NTR".[4] In 1996, he starred as a child artist in Ramayanam, which won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film for that year. His debut as an adult was in 2001 with the film Student No. 1. In his film career spanning 18 years, Rao has worked in 28 films. He has received two state Nandi Awards, two Filmfare Best Telugu Actor Awards and four CineMAA Awards.
He received critical reception for his performance in works such as Student No.1 (2001), Aadi (2002), Simhadri (2003), Yamadonga (2007), Brindavanam (2010 film) (2010), Temper (2015), Nannaku Prematho (2016), Janatha Garage (2016), Jai Lava Kusa (2017) and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018). He was ranked 66th in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list in 2012 with an annual income of ₹190 million (US$3.042 Million) and 55th in 2016 with an annual income of ₹360 million.
After the success of the debut film "Bala Ramayanam", director Gunasekhar recommended Rao to director S. S. Rajamouli to act in his debut Student No. 1, during mid-2000 after being impressed with his performance in the auditions and his previous film Bala Ramayanam, however, the film went under production for too long. He was later signed by producer Ramoji Rao, and decided to work on the romantic drama Ninnu Choodalani to make his debut as a full-time hero. By that time, he was only 17 in his debut film.[3] The film had another debutante Raveena Rajput, and consisted of an ensemble cast of K. Viswanath, and Kaikala Satyanarayana who played their grandparents. He also went on to star in the 2001 Telugu film Subbu.
He then signed up for another debutant director VV Vinayak's Aadi. For the first time, he played a youth cum action hero, who is trying to take revenge on a landlord for the death of his parents. The film was one of the highest grossers of 2002, just behind Chiranjeevi's Indra.[11] The film ran for more than 200 days and gave him a fan following due to the success of the film, and he rose from obscurity to stardom.[12] He then signed up for veteran director B. Gopal's Allari Ramudu. The film was an average grosser, but managed to run for more than 100 days. He then signed up for A. M. Rathnam's political thriller Naaga. He then collaborated with the same director SS Rajamouli for the action masala film Simhadri which became one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.[13] He gave a new look, in order to get rid of the youth one, and grew a light beard. giving him the title of Young Tiger. He later quit youth films and started experimenting with faction dramas.[14]
Rao later signed up Puri Jagannadh's Andhrawala, which was an action drama. The director, had successful releases in the past year, and this film created much hype. He played a leader of the village. The film was an expensive film made with a budget of ₹100 million. He then signed up another faction film, Samba with his old director V. V. Vinayak. For the first time in his career, he experimented by acting in a family drama film Naa Alludu. He played a dual role of Karthik, a responsible man who has an aim to work in a good business company and Murugan, a Tamil- speaking villager who works in the business of coconut water. He then collaborated with director B. Gopal for a film Narasimhudu who was riding high on the success of Indra. Bollywood actresses Ameesha Patel, and Sameera Reddy were selected, with the latter making her Telugu debut. Rao took a one-year hiatus, and then later signed up for Surender Reddy's Ashok. The film saw him pairing with Sameera Reddy for the second time. The film was financially unsuccessful for the producers, thus continuing his string of unsuccessful films.[15