5 min readHyderabadFeb 25, 2026 09:00 PM IST
There is a Ranveer Singh advertisement somewhere on the internet where, if you look closely enough, you will spot a young man sitting in the background clicking photographs. He was barely visible, his appearance was uncredited, and was paid a small fee for the job. That was Naveen Polishetty’s first paycheck as a performer in Mumbai.
Years later, Ranveer Singh stood on a stage and handed that same man a Best Actor Award for Jathi Ratnalu, and Naveen told him the story that night. The actor recently delivered his first Rs 100 crore hit.
At a recent town hall interview with an engineering student, Naveen connected those two dots himself, and everything in between. From nearly sleeping at a railway station in Mumbai to crossing Rs 100 crore mark at the box office during one of the toughest Sankranti seasons Telugu cinema has seen, he has had quite a journey.
Naveen’s path to Telugu cinema went the other way round. While most successful Telugu actors eventually migrate to Bollywood, he started in Mumbai and worked his way to Telugu cinema. And the Mumbai years were brutal.
He was doing three to four auditions a day, waiting in lines from morning until late evening, only to get a two-minute slot in front of a casting director. For small background roles, 250 people would wait outside a 10×10 ft room. For lead roles in TV shows and web series, the number swelled to 2,000.
The rejections were sometimes genuinely absurd. He was turned away repeatedly for not having six-pack abs. He was rejected for a chips advertisement for the same reason. “Who needs a six-pack just to eat chips?” he said, still visibly baffled by the logic.
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His break came through AIB, where he worked as a writer and performer. The Honest series they created went viral, 15 to 20 million views at a time when 4G did not exist in India and OTT platforms were not yet part of daily life. “That gave me a lot of confidence,” he said. “We can write too, and we can play different characters.”
Chhichhore and the scene he wrote from memory
His entry into feature films came through a case of mistaken identity. The casting team for Chhichhore called him because they confused his name with someone else’s. He auditioned and heard nothing for months. Then director Nitesh Tiwari separately found a YouTube monologue of his and demanded he be brought back.
The second audition changed everything. The famous ragging sequence in the film, widely praised after the movie released, was not from the script. It was from Naveen’s own college life. He walked into Nitesh Tiwari’s office and described exactly how ragging worked at his engineering hostel, including a rule that required juniors to keep their eyes fixed on their own third shirt button at all times when passing a senior, or face punishment. Tiwari loved it. “Add this, add this,” he told Naveen. The scene made it into the film exactly as Naveen described it.
The 100-crore moment
When Anaganaga Oka Raju crossed Rs 100 crore worldwide, during one of the most competitive Sankranti seasons Telugu cinema has seen, with six to seven big films releasing simultaneously, Naveen received a message from the producers with the number. He asked his team for two minutes and stepped away. “It was like putting in years and years of effort and finally getting a big result. If it comes overnight, it doesn’t have the same kick,” he said. He described the moment as one of pure gratitude, no desire, no next wish, just relief and thankfulness. “For the last 10 days, I’ve just been going around saying thank you.”
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Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya 2 is in the works. He says every single public interaction, whether on his US tour or across India, begins with someone asking for the sequel. They are currently trying to crack a crime angle “no one would ever expect,” and he hopes to deliver it within two years. His larger dream is a Telugu sci-fi film. He also wants to make a sequel to Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari, a film his mother has watched fifty times.
For the engineering students sitting in front of him at the town hall, he had one clear message: “If you’re an outsider in this industry, don’t give 100%. Give 500%. A hundred percent is for people who already have privilege. If you don’t have that, be prepared to give 1000% and aim to deliver at least 500%.”
The man who once sat invisible in the background of someone else’s advertisement has clearly done the math.
