Birthday special: Prabhas’ unnoticed Bollywood debut with Action Jackson, and other interesting facts

Prabhas, the Baahubali of the Indian film industry, has turned 41 today. The superstar, who started his film innings in 2002 with the film Eeswar, is counted among the topmost stars of the Telugu film industry. In fact, after the smashing success of SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), trade pundits gave him the tag of a pan-India superstar, which he rightly deserved. After all, the epic actioner’s Hindi version alone went on to earn staggering Rs 510 crore at the domestic box office, a feat no Hindi film has ever achieved.

On Prabhas’ special day, we take a look at some lesser-known facts about the star:

1. Not many know but Prabhas’ first appearance in a Bollywood film was in the Ajay Devgn and Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Action Jackson (2015). The actor had made a guest appearance in the song Punjabi Mast. Apparently, Prabhas was not happy with the screen time he had been allotted in the song. The actor might have thought of garnering attention in the Hindi belts with his cameo, but his appearance was of merely 10 seconds.
2. Prabhas is a huge fan of Bollywood filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani. He had revealed that he had watched Munnabhai M.B.B.S. and 3 Idiots nearly 20 times.
3. The world knows him by the name Prabhas but his real name is Venkata Satyanarayana Prabhas Raju Uppala. Possibly because of the length and complexity of the pronunciation, the actor would have decided to keep his name short and sweet. The Tollywood star is referred to as ‘Darling’ by his millions of fans across India and the world.
4. A diehard fan of Prabhas may not imagine the actor in any other profession but acting. However, the Saaho star had once revealed that if he were not an actor, he would have been a hotelier. A foodie at heart, Prabhas loves Butter Chicken and Biryani.
5. Prabhas is a gym freak and there are no two ways about it. Hardly a day goes when he does not sweat it out in the gym. Reportedly, the actor owns gym equipment worth Rs 1.5 crore.

On the work front, Prabhas will be seen next in Radhe Shyam, co-starring Pooja Hegde. The release date of the film has not been finalised yet but it will release sometime next year.