Acharya Nāgārjuna (Devanagari:नागार्जुन, Telugu: నాగార్జున, Tibetan: ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ klu sgrub, Chinese: 龍樹, Sinhala නාගර්පුන) (ca. 150–250 CE) was an important Buddhist teacher and philosopher. Along with his disciple Āryadeva, he is credited with founding the Mādhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Mādhyamaka school was in turn transmitted to China under the name of the Sānlùn School (Ch. 三論宗, "Three Treatise School").

Nāgārjuna is sometimes credited with developing the philosophy of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, and being associated with the Buddhist university of Nālandā. In the Jodo Shinshu and Shingon schools of Buddhism in Japan he is considered the First Patriarch. In some Mahāyāna traditions, Nāgārjuna is regarded as a second buddha.

According to most available accounts, Nāgārjuna was originally from Southern India. Archaeological discoveries at Amarāvatī confirm the fact that Nāgārjuna maintained a friendship with the Sātavāhana king Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi, to whom he addressed his Letter to a Friend (Skt. Sahṛd-lekhā). On this basis, Nāgārjuna is conventionally placed at around 150–250 CE.

Naga Chaitanya is an Indian film actor who stars in Telugu films. He made his debut in the 2009 college film, Josh. His second film was, Gautham Menon's Ye Maaya Chesave with his portrayal of a love-torn film director winning him critical acclaim.

Naga Chaitanya was born on 23 November 1986 to actor Akkineni Nagarjuna and his first wife, Lakshmi Daggubati. Naga Chaitanya's paternal grandfather, Akkineni Nageswara Rao is one of the stalwarts of Telugu cinema. His maternal grandfather, Daggubati Ramanaidu, is a producer in the film industry whilst his maternal uncle, Daggubati Venkatesh is also one of Tollywood's lead actors. Naga Chaitanya's cousins, Rana Daggubati, Sumanth Yarlagadda, and Sushanth are also film actors. His step-mother is actress Amala Akkineni and his half-brother is child actor Akhil Akkineni.

Naga Chaitanya was born in Hyderabad, but moved to Chennai with his mother after his parents split. He received schooling at the PSBB School in Chennai, during which he often visited his father in Hyderabad. He played the guitar and drums occasionally for the PSBB school band. He was then sent to an acting school in Mumbai, and subsequently to Hollywood Studios in California (USA) to learn dance and fights before he made his debut.

Akkineni Nageswara Rao (Telugu: అక్కినేని నాగేశ్వర రావు) (born 20 September 1922 at Ramapuram, Gudivada Taluk, Krishna District), popularly known by his initials ANR, is a Telugu cinema actor from Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh. Nageswara Rao has worked in several genres of films in his 78-year acting career, including mythological, social, and drama films. Nageswara Rao has been active in the Telugu film industry since 1941 and is the recipient of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest award for films in India. He is also a recipient of Padmashri, Padmabhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards.

Akkineni Nageswara Rao was born into a poor farmer's family on 20 September 1922 at Ramapuram, Krishna District. He has stated on record in several interviews that his education was limited to primary schooling due to his parents' poor economic conditions. Nageswara Rao took to acting at a very early age. He started acting in street plays at the age of nine.

Indian plays in those days used to have an all male cast and male leads often played female roles (as evidenced in the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra). In his early days as an actor, Nageswara Rao used to enact such female roles on stage.

Allu Arjun (Telugu: అల్లు అర్జున్; born 8 April 1983) is an Indian film actor known for his work in Telugu cinema. He has won two Nandi, two Filmfare and a CineMAA Award for his performances in Arya, Parugu and Vedam.

Arjun was born on 8 April 1983 to Allu Aravind and Nirmala. He is the grandson of Telugu comedian Allu Ramalingaiah. He has two brothers Allu Venkatesh and Allu Sirish. He is the nephew of actor Chiranjeevi and actor Pawan Kalyan, and cousin of actor Ram Charan Teja. He married Sneha Reddy on 6 March 2011.

Arjun worked as a child artist in the film Vijetha and made a guest appearance in Daddy. Arjun made his debut as actor in K. Raghavendra Rao's Gangotri (2003).

His first lead role was in Gangotri, directed by K. Raghavendra Rao which did moderate business despite well received music, composed by MM Keeravani. His second movie Arya, released in 2004, became his first success at the box office. This film was produced by Dil Raju and directed by Sukumar. It was the role that first made Allu Arjun a common name among the youth, which till date is his major audience.^{[citation needed]} Music composed by Devisri Prasad became highly successful and contributed to the success of the film.^{[citation needed]}

Vidya Balan (pronounced [ʋɪd̪jaː baːlən]; born 1 January 1978) is an Indian actress, who appears mainly in Hindi films, in addition to Bengali and Malayalam films. After graduating with a degree in sociology, she started her career starring in music videos, television shows and commercials, before making her feature film debut with the independent Bengali drama Bhalo Theko (2003). Balan received positive notice for her first Hindi film, Parineeta (2005), and followed it with a leading role in the blockbuster Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), and other such hit films as Guru, Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (all 2007).

2009 marked the beginning of the most successful period in Balan's career as she portrayed five back-to-back roles to wide critical acclaim in Paa (2009), Ishqiya (2010), No One Killed Jessica (2011), The Dirty Picture (2011) and Kahaani (2012). These roles have further established her as one of the leading contemporary actresses of Hindi cinema and earned her several major awards. Balan has received one National Film Award for Best Actress, five Filmfare Awards, including two for Best Actress and one for Best Actress - Critics, as well as three consecutive Screen Awards for Best Actress.