Puri Jagannadh

Puri Jagannath was born in a Telugu-speaking Hindu Koppula Velama family in Pithapuram, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. His native village is Bapiraju Kothapalli, Kotauratla Mandal, Visakhapatnam District in Andhra Pradesh. He studied at St. Theresa R.C.M. high school in Pedaboddepalli. Petla is his family name, Puri Jagannath is his given name, which is in honor of the Lord Jagannath Temple of Puri. He started his career as an assistant director to Ram Gopal Varma for several Telugu films. His Telugu directorial debut, Badri, starred Pawan Kalyan. He is a good friend to actor Ravi Teja who starred in some of his films like Itlu Sravani Subramanyam, Idiot. He has also worked in the Kannada industry and introduced Puneeth Rajkumar. In 2011 he worked with Amitabh Bachchan.

He made his debut with the 2000 blockbuster film Badri starring Pawan Kalyan, Renu Desai and Ameesha Patel. In 2006, he directed Pokiri, premiered at the 7th IIFA Film Festival held in Dubai. The film was later re-made into several Indian Languages, and catapulted Puri to national recognition. He made his Bollywood debut in 2004, with the film Shart: The Challenge. In 2011, he directed Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap, which was archived in the Oscar library.

Puri Jagannath (born 28 September 1966) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, who works primarily in the Telugu cinema. He is known as the Dynamic Director in Telugu film industry for his characterizations and style of film making.