Puri Jagannadh

Petla "Puri" Jagannadh (born 28 September 1966) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer, who works primarily in the Telugu film Industry. He made his directorial debut with the Telugu film Badri starring Pawan Kalyan, Renu Desai and Ameesha Patel. In 2006, he directed the Telugu film Pokiri, premiered at the 7th IIFA Film Festival held in Dubai. The film was later re-made into several Indian languages, and brought Puri widespread Indian recognition. He made his Hindi film debut in 2004, with the film Shart: The Challenge. In 2011, he directed the Hindi film Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap starring Amitabh Bachchan, which was archived in the Oscar library.

He also produces films under his co-owned production companies, Puri Jagannadh Touring Talkies, Vaishno Academy and Puri Connects in partnership with actress Charmme Kaur. He owns a music company called Puri Sangeet. The box office hits that he directed, in addition to Badri, include the films Itlu Sravani Subramanyam, Appu, Idiot, Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi, Sivamani, Pokiri, Desamuduru, Golimaar, Businessman, Iddarammayilatho, Heart Attack, Temper and iSmart Shankar.

Puri Jagannadh was born on 28 September 1966 in Pithapuram, Andhra Pradesh.[10][11] His native place is Bapiraju Kothapalli village of Anakapalli district in Andhra Pradesh. He was schooled at St. Theresa High School, Pedda Boddapalli and graduated from A. M. A. L. College, Anakapalle in 1986.[11][12]

His first younger brother, Petla Uma Sankara Ganesh, is an MLA from Narsipatnam, YSR Congress Party, while second younger brother, Sairam Shankar, is an actor.[13][14]

He married Lavanya in 1996.[15] The couple has a son, Akash and a daughter, Pavithra.[16] Akash made his film debut as a lead in Mehbooba (2018).[17]

His paternal cousin, Parasuram, assisted Puri in several movies before making his directorial debut with Yuvatha (2008).[citation needed ]

Puri started his film directorial career as an assistant director to Ram Gopal Varma for several Telugu films mainly of action genre.[18] His Telugu film directorial debut, Badri starred Pawan Kalyan. Apart from Telugu films, he has also worked in the Kannada film industry and introduced Puneeth Rajkumar with the film Appu. In 2011 he worked with Amitabh Bachchan in the film Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap.[19]

In 2020, Jagannadh directed action film Liger, which was produced by Dharma Productions and Charmme Kaur. It stars Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday in lead roles.[20][21] The film was a box-office disappointment.[22]