Sumanth

Sumanth Kumar Yarlagadda (born 9 February 1975), known mononymously as Sumanth, is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is the eldest grandson of Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. He is also a partner in Annapurna Studios.

Sumanth's most notable films are Prema Katha (1999), Yuvakudu (2000), Satyam (2003),Gowri (2004), Godavari (2006), Madhumasam (2008), Golconda High School (2011), Malli Raava (2017), and Sita Ramam (2022).

Sumanth was born in Hyderabad, India, on 9 February 1975. He is the only son of Surendra Yarlagadda and Satyavathi Akkineni. He is the eldest grandchild of the Telugu film actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. A few months after his birth, Sumanth's parents returned to the US where they were residing. Sumanth, however, remained in India on the request of his grandfather Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who was then on a hiatus from films after a major heart surgery. The latter had often said that his busy acting career prevented him from fully experiencing fatherhood with his own children, so he wished to raise his first grandchild himself. Subsequently, Sumanth was adopted by his maternal grandparents.

Sumanth's father, Surendra Yarlagadda, is a former film producer, noted for several hit films such as Muchataga Mugguru (1985), Collector Gari Abbayi (1987), Rao Gari Illu (1988), Siva (1989), and Gaayam (1993). He has one younger sister: Supriya Yarlagadda, who is the executive director of Annapurna Studios. Actor Nagarjuna Akkineni is his maternal uncle. Actors Naga Chaitanya, Akhil Akkineni, and Sushanth are his cousins.

In August 2004, Sumanth married former actress Keerthi Reddy. They were divorced amicably in 2006.[10]

Sumanth studied at the Hyderabad Public School, graduating in 1991. For his undergraduate studies, he enrolled in an engineering course in Michigan. Realising after two years that it wasn't in his best interest, he transferred to Columbia College Chicago, from where he graduated with a B. A. in Film Studies in 1997.[11]

Sumanth made his debut as a lead actor in Ram Gopal Varma's Prema Katha in 1999.[12][13] Although not commercially successful ,[14] the film was critically acclaimed and received five Nandi awards, including the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film.[15] Even though it was just an average earner when released, his second film Yuvakudu (2000) directed by Karunakaran would go on to be widely considered an underrated film later on .[16][17] Sumanth’s lean box office run continued with his next films Pelli Sambandham, Ramma Chilakamma, and Snehamante Idera, despite popular actors from his family Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Nagarjuna sharing screen in two of them.[18]

Sumanth’s box office breakthrough came in late 2003 with Satyam (2003 film)[19] where he played the role of a struggling lyricist. In addition to commercial success, Sumanth received critical acclaim, with Idlebrain.com commenting, "there is not even a single moment where you can find any shortcomings in his histrionics".[20] This was followed by another hit Gowri in 2004. This action drama was a remake of the Tamil film Thirumalai. Idlebrain.com Jeevi wrote, “Sumanth was good as usual and performed really well in fights”.[21] After consecutive hits, he continued in the action genre with Dhana 51 (2005), which was a flop, and the average running Mahanandi (2006).[22][23]

Sumanth altered his path in 2006, starring in Sekhar Kammula's Godavari, which remains one of the most acclaimed films in his career. On top of immense critical and commercial success, this film also garnered five Nandi awards and a Filmfare award.[24] Rediff.com said that Godavari is “a film that reminds us that cinema can be so much more ”.[25] Sumanth next acted in Chinnodu, which released in October 2006 and was an average grosser.[26] In 2007, he starred in the romantic drama Madhumasam, produced by D. Ramanaidu and directed by Chandra Siddhartha. This film was a hit, having a 100 days theatrical run.[27] Sumanth next did the lead in Classmates, which generated a curiosity as it was the first time that its director K. Vijaya Bhaskar was without his usual collaborator Trivikram Srinivas as dialogue writer.[28] Additionally, it was a remake of the trend-setting Malayalam film Classmates.[29] Despite positive reviews, the film however failed at the box office. Sumanth’s next two films were Pourudu (2008), which was a moderate success,[30] and Boni (2009) which was a failure.[31]

Sumanth's following film Golconda High School in 2011 was a sports drama directed by Mohana Krishna Indraganti. Based on an English Novel "The Men Within" written by Harimohan Paruvu, an ex Ranji Trophy cricketer,[32] this film was positively reviewed and was well received by audiences. Idlebrain.com said that Sumanth's role as a cricket coach was his "career best performance".[33] This was followed by failures like Raaj (2011), Daggaraga Dooranga (2011), Emo Gurram Egaravachu (2014) and Naruda Donoruda (2016).[34][35][36][37] Among these, Naruda Donoruda was anticipated as it was a remake of the Bollywood hit Vicky Donor. The film however received disappointing reviews, and its theatrical run was further negatively affected by the coinciding 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation.[38][39]

Sumanth made a comeback in late 2017 with the romantic drama Malli Raava, under the direction of debutant Gowtam Tinnanuri. This film was a box office hit and was well reviewed,[40][41] with Firstpost calling it “a pleasant surprise” and "Sumanth's best film in a long time".[42] It won four awards including best film from the Telugu Chamber of Film and Commerce.[43] Sumanth next played the lead role in Subrahmanyapuram (2018). This mystery thriller was commercially an average runner after receiving mixed reviews.[44] It was followed by the flop Idam Jagath (2018). Sumanth then played the lead role in Kapatadhaari, which was a remake of the Kannada Neo-noir Thriller Kavaludaari. This film released in February 2021 with 50% theatre occupancy COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and turned out to be commercially unsuccessful despite positive reviews.[45][46] His next film Malli Modalaindi (2021) released directly on OTT to negative reviews.[47] However, the popular website Greatandhra.com called it a “soft hit” based on streaming hours.[48]

The various supporting and cameo roles Sumanth did starting from 2019 received a positive response. Despite the film’s commercial failure, Sumanth's supporting role as his grandfather Akkineni Nageswara Rao was well received in NTR: Kathanayakudu.[49] In 2022, he did a key supporting role in the film Sita Ramam, a war romance starring Dulquer Salmaan. This film was a major commercial and critical success and Sumanth's performance received appreciation.[50] He then appeared in an integral cameo role in the Dhanush starrer Vaathi (2023) which was also successful.[51][52]