Chakravarthy made his screen debut with the Telugu film, Siva, an action blockbuster directed by Ram Gopal Varma, featured at the 12th IFFI.

He is best known for his performances in box office hits like Neti Siddhartha (1990), Money (1993), Money Money (1995), One by Two (1993), Gulabi (1995), for which he received the state Nandi Special Jury Award,[citation needed][6][4][5] Mrugam (1996), Bombay Priyudu (1996), Anaganaga Oka Roju (1997), Egire Paavurama (1997), Nenu Premisthunnanu (1997), Wife of V. Varaprasad (1998), Premaku Velayara (1999), Pape Naa Pranam (2000), Premaku Swagatam (2002), Madhyanam Hathya (2004), Homam (2008), and Dayaa (2023).

[7][8][9] Chakravarthy was born into a Telugu speaking family of carnatic singer Prof. Dr. Kovela Shantha, and father Nagulapati Suryanarayana Rao.

He has worked in many Telugu films directed by ace film makers of the time like Mani Ratnam, Krishna Vamsi, S. V. Krishna Reddy, K. Raghavendra Rao, Kodi Ramakrishna, E. V. V. Satyanarayana, Siva Nageswara Rao, Gunasekhar, and Vamsy.

[5] In 2016, he has appeared in the Malayalam film Bhaskar the Rascal pairing with Nayanthara also starring Mammootty.