A nephew of Telugu film producer D. Ramanaidu, Daggubati Venkatesh was persuaded by his family to become an actor in Tamil cinema owing to his familiarity with Madras.
He subsequently joined Bharathiraja's acting school, where he trained before getting his first major career breakthrough with the director's romantic drama Kadalora Kavithaigal (1986).
[5] The box office success of Kadalora Kavithaigal prompted Bharathiraja to cast him again in Vedham Pudhithu (1987), and the popular song "Kannukkul Nooru" earned Raja a large female fanbase.
[4] In the early 1990s, he was often typecast in soft, demure characters often portraying a gentle romantic, who regularly lost out to film's lead actor.
He made his return to Tamil films through Adithya Varma (2019), where he appeared as the father of the titular character played by debutant Dhruv Vikram.