Before he became a pan-Indian star, with SS Rajamouli's Baahubali franchise, Prabhas quietly racked up hit after hit in the Telugu-speaking States. Read this list, which features five of his memorable performances, from his first blockbuster Varsham to Mirchi, which earned him a Nandi Award.
Streaming on: MX Player
Varsham was Prabhas' first mega hit. Though he had starred in two other movies previously, they didn't fetch him any stardom. With Varsham, his popularity skyrocketed and he was noticed by everybody in the Telugu-speaking regions. Composer Devi Sri Prasad's ear-pleasing soundtrack — every song was a success, and poetically spoke about the love story between the leads (Trisha and Prabhas) — was a huge hit.
Varsham was later remade into several languages, but the other versions, somehow, lacked the soul of the original.
Streaming on: Disney+Hotstar
Before SS Rajamouli and Prabhas teamed up for the Baahubali films, the duo had already collaborated on Chatrapathi. To this day, there are many people who prefer the latter for various reasons. Here, Prabhas stars as a godfather who helps the masses by making sure they're not taken advantage of. It's a typical anti-establishment film in which a man from the crowd rises against dictatorship, and falls in love with the heroine, played by Shriya Saran.
There are many whistle-worthy scenes featuring an excellent Prabhas. Rajamouli scores big in the action scenes — the way he builds the tempo to achieve his vision is treat to watch.
Streaming on: MX Player
The 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Don has been remade in Tamil and Telugu a few times, and this is one of them. Just like Billa established Rajinikanth as a popular hero in the early 80s, this remake gave Prabhas a new fan base amongst the Telugu audience. He stars alongside Anushka Shetty and Namitha in this action thriller and shares screen space with his uncle Krishnam Raju, too.
Billa sees him mostly in bespoke suits, which instantly give him a different look. And if you thought that his chemistry with Anushka was super-good in Baahubali, you should watch this.
Streaming on: MX Player
It's well-known that Prabhas refers to his fans as "Darlings". And, when there's a movie with the same word as title, how do you think it's going to be? This is an out-and-out family drama where most of the scenes feature the extended family members of the protagonists. With a series of hits following Chandamama, Magadheera, Arya 2 and Darling, Kajal Aggarwal found a permanent place in Telugu cinema with this movie and she was welcomed with open arms by bigger production houses and viewers.
Trivia: The movie has been dubbed into Hindi as "Sabse Badhkar Hum", and the sequels available on YouTube are not related to Darling in any manner.
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
Prabhas' performance in this film earned him a Nandi Award, something his fans consider very special. The dialogue, "Veelaithe premiddaam, dude, poyedemundi? Maha aithe, thirigi premisthaaru (We should spread love, dude! What are we going to lose? The worst thing that can happen in this case is that the other person might also love us)," became famous soon after the film released and it's still relevant, seven years after it first hit theatres.
If Mirchi served as yet another box office hit for its hero, it made director Koratala Siva an overnight sensation, and he continues to deliver blockbusters.