Konidela Sai Varun Tej (born 19 January 1990) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema. He made his acting debut in 2014 with Mukunda. He received praise for featuring in Krish's critically acclaimed war film Kanche (2015). He established himself as a leading actor with the romantic drama Fidaa (2017), a major critical and commercial success. He has since starred in films including Tholi Prema (2018), Gaddalakonda Ganesh (2019), F2 (2019) and F3 (2022). He is married to his co-actress Lavanya Tripathi.[4]
Varun Tej debuted as a child artist in his father Nagendra Babu's film Hands Up when he was ten years old. He made his adult debut with Mukunda, starring opposite Pooja Hegde. The film earned positive reviews. His second venture was the 2015 war film Kanche, starring opposite Pragya Jaiswal and received positive reviews from critics.[7] Tej's performance as Dhupati Haribabu was praised with The Times of India praising his "capability to shift gears from intense to sobriety".[8] His second release that year Loafer, was a box office failure, along with his 2017 outing Mister.
The later half of 2017 saw the release of Fidaa, where he played an NRI falling in love with a village belle. The film was commercially successful grossing over ₹90 crore at the box office.[9] His 2018 release Tholi Prema was also a box office success and Tej's performance as an impulsive young man was widely appreciated.[10][11] His next film that year was space thriller Antariksham 9000 KMPH, directed by Sankalp Reddy.[12]
As of January 2020, Tej has two films under production, Ghani, and F2's sequel F3.[15][16] Tej next played the role of a boxer, in Ghani (2022) directed by Kiran Korrapati.[17][18][19] Following the film's release, Tej acknowledged the reviews and apologised, accepting the film's failure at the box office through a note on social media.[20]
Personal life
Varun Tej met actress Lavanya Tripathi, on the sets of their film Mister (2017) and eventually started dating her.[21] They went onto work together in Antariksham 9000 KMPH in 2018. The couple got engaged on 9 June 2023 in Hyderabad. The couple got married on 1 November 2023 in Tuscany, Italy in a traditional ceremony.[22]
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Tej stood at the 27th place on Forbes India's most influential stars on Instagram in South cinema for the year 2021.[23] In the Hyderabad Times Most Desirable Men list, Tej was place 7th in 2019 and 17th in 2020.[24][25] In Rediff.com's "Top Telugu Actors" list, Tej was placed 5th in 2012.[26]
