Debut and early career (2006–2010) Pothineni first appeared with his theatrical debut in 2006 with
Devadasu. His second film,
Jagadam opposite Isha Sahani was directed by
Sukumar. He then appeared in
Ready alongside
Genelia D'Souza directed by
Srinu Vaitla which was a commercial success. In 2009, he had two releases,
Maska and
Ganesh. In 2010, Pothineni had only one release,
Rama Rama Krishna Krishna, produced by
Dil Raju and directed by
Sriwass.
Career ups and downs (2011–2016) Pothineni's next film was
Kandireega (2011). Later he starred in
Endukante... Premanta! (2012) alongside
Tamannaah, directed by
Karunakaran and produced by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore. In 2013, Pothineni appeared in
Ongole Githa with
Kriti Kharbanda directed by
Bhaskar and produced by B.V.S.N. Prasad. In the same year, he co-starred alongside
Venkatesh in the
action comedy Masala, the remake of the Hindi film
Bol Bachchan, directed by
K. Vijaya Bhaskar and jointly produced by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore and
D. Suresh Babu. In 2015, Pothineni starred in two films,
Pandaga Chesko and
Shivam . While
Pandaga Chesko directed by
Gopichand Malineni, was a commercial success,
Shivam ended up as one of the biggest failures of his career. In 2016, He had two releases, both produced by his own production house
Sri Sravanthi Movies,
Nenu Sailaja which was a commercial success and
Santosh Srinivas-directed
Hyper which was an average at the
box office.
Success and recent work (2017–present) His 2017
coming-of-age film Vunnadhi Okate Zindagi received mixed reviews. In 2018, he starred in the
romantic comedy Hello Guru Prema Kosame directed by
Trinadha Rao Nakkina. In 2019, he collaborated with director
Puri Jagannadh for the
action thriller iSmart Shankar. The film became a commercial success for Pothineni after a series of failures. It grossed over , his career's highest grosser. His 2021 film was
Red where he played a dual role, is a remake of
Tamil film
Thadam (2018). Pothineni then starred in
Boyapati Srinu's
Skanda (2023) opposite
Sreeleela to mixed reviews from the critics. He next starred in
Double iSmart, which released in 2024. ==Media image==