Do we like Jr NTR?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Clean on harm and decent on the good-person test, but the record on LGBTQ+ and climate topics is thin.
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr, known as Tarak, started as a child artiste and played Lord Rama in Bala Ramayanam. He broke through as a lead with Student No.1, then Aadi and Simhadri, and Temper reset his image as a star. RRR made him a global name, and its song Naatu Naatu won an Oscar.
The recent run has been big but not RRR-big. Devara (2024) reportedly made about ₹428 crore worldwide and his Bollywood debut War 2 (2025) about ₹364 crore. Next is Dragon, an action film with Prashanth Neel due 11 June 2027, with Anil Kapoor and Rukmini Vasanth in the cast. Devara 2 has reportedly been dropped, and nothing in the cast and crew we read points to the kind of company we'd flag.
On the harm check, the record is short but clean. In a 2021 video he objected to women being dragged into political fights, saying that doing so leads to anarchy. We found nothing from him on trans rights, climate or migrants, so that is a gap in the file, not a clean bill on every topic.
Politics hovers around him because his grandfather founded the Telugu Desam Party. In August 2025 an audio clip allegedly featuring TDP MLA Daggupati Venkateswara Prasad used abusive language about Tarak. The MLA denied the voice was his, and the Andhra Pradesh chief minister warned his MLAs about irresponsible talk. Fans protested, but the actor was the one on the receiving end.
His legal file is about protecting himself, not defending himself. He reportedly went to the Telangana High Court over a Hyderabad land dispute after a tribunal sided with banks, and his team later said the property was sold in 2013. In December 2025 he took the Delhi High Court a personality-rights suit, and the court told platforms to treat it as a complaint and act within three days.
The October deepfake is the story that shows his character. He called the AI-faked clip shameful beyond words, urged people not to watch or share it, and promised to go after its makers. Co-star Janhvi Kapoor also condemned it. We found no report yet of a case actually being filed.