Chiranjeevi

Chiranjeevi was born on 22 August 1955 at Mogalthur in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. He took a commerce degree at Sri Y. N. College and trained at the Madras Film Institute, graduating in 1976. His first released film was Pranam Khareedu in 1978, and he became a leading star with Khaidi in 1983. He has won nine Filmfare Awards South and three Nandi Awards, and in 2024 was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most prolific actor-dancer in Indian cinema.

The Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust was established on 2 October 1998, with the involvement of the producer Allu Aravind. Chiranjeevi has said he was moved to set up a blood bank by reports of deaths from blood shortages that year, and that he wanted to direct the enthusiasm of his fan associations towards public benefit.

The trust's two principal wings are its blood bank and its eye bank. It has reported collecting more than 930,000 units of blood, the large majority supplied free of charge to poor patients and the remainder to private hospitals, and 4,580 pairs of donated eyes, from which corneal grafts have restored sight to more than 9,000 people. The trust also runs an insurance scheme, Chiru Bhadratha, providing cover for regular blood donors.

Chiranjeevi founded the Praja Rajyam Party in 2008 on a platform of social justice. The party won 18 of 294 seats in the 2009 Andhra Pradesh assembly election and merged with the Indian National Congress in 2011. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2012 to 2018 and served as Union Minister of State with independent charge for tourism from October 2012 to May 2014.

The Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust's blood bank received the national best voluntary blood bank award for five consecutive years from 2002 to 2006. Chiranjeevi was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2024.[2][3][4][5]