Cameo appearances

Upendra first appeared on screen making an appearance in Kashinath's 1989 comedy film, Anantana Avantara. He appeared as Lord Kamadeva in the song "Come On Come On Kaamanna". In Ajagajantara, also directed by Kashinath, he made a cameo appearance. In his directorial debut, Shhh! (1993), Upendra made another cameo appearance, like a mad man in the attire of a police officer barging into a film set. In his 1995 directorial Operation Antha, he appears as a man urinating on a roadside wall and explains of India's ways to a complaining Mandakini (played by Sangeetha).

1998–2005

From 1998 to 2005, Upendra starred in eight 100 days hits in eight years, such as A, Upendra, Preethse, Kutumba, Raktha Kanneeru, Gokarna, Gowramma and Auto Shankar.^[13][35]

In 1998, Upendra directed and starred in A, which was his fifth film as a director but his first lead role as a hero. The film had a 175-day run^[19] and became a trend-setting blockbuster in Karnataka,^[13] with its Telugu dubbed version running for 100 days in Andhra Pradesh.^[16] Around this time, he received an offer from Amitabh Bachchan Corporation to make a film for them, which did not materialize.^[36] Due to Upendra's newly found popularity in Telugu, Telugu director E. V. V. Satyanarayana cast him in the 1998 Telugu film Kanyadanam alongside Srikanth and Rachana, which also became a commercial success.^[37] In 1999 Upendra again directed and starred in his self-titled film Upendra which starred Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon. The film went on to become a bigger hit than A, both in Karnataka as well as in Andhra Pradesh.^[13] The film had a 200 days run in Karnataka^[19] and 100 days run in Andhra Pradesh.^[16] In 2000, Upendra starred opposite Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre in the psychological thriller Preethse which was a remake of Bollywood film Darr. Preethse became Upendra's third consecutive blockbuster^[13] that ran for 175 days.^[38] With three back-to-back highly received films, Upendra became well known in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.^[13] Due to the success of the Telugu dubbed versions of his Kannada films and Kanyadanam, he starred in the Telugu films Oke Maata, Raa and Neethone Vuntanu. Raa was a typical Upendra style film in which he plays a womanizing playboy. Upendra starred opposite his future wife Priyanka Trivedi for the first time in this film. While Raa written by him was a box office success,^[39][40] the other two films were box office failures causing Upendra to take a break from straight Telugu films.^[41]

In 2002, Upendra acted in less-received films such as H2O, Super Star, Hollywood, Nagarahavu and Naanu Naane for not meeting expectations and having average run at the box office.^[13][42]

From 2003 to 2005 he starred in 5 back-to-back films that each ran for 100 days such as Kutumba, Raktha Kanneeru, Gokarna, Gowramma, and Auto Shankar; all of which were well received at the box office.^[13] Only two films of Upendra in this time were received poorly: Omkara and News.^[13]

2006–2009

Upendra had a less successful phase from 2006 to 2009, as most of his films during this period went unnoticed at the box office such as Uppi Dada M.B.B.S., Tandege Takka Maga, Parodi, Masti, Toss (Telugu), Lava Kusha, Sathyam (Tamil), Dubai Babu and Rajini.^[13][43][44]

The only commercial well-received films he acted in during this period were the candy floss romantic comedy Aishwarya, which ran for 75 days,^[45] and the moderately successful Anatharu which ran for 70 days.^[13] Upendra received praise and critical acclaim for his performance in Anatharu.

Budhivanta, which was Upendra's only release in 2008, was considered as his big comeback. The film was declared a blockbuster^[46] and ran for 100 days;^[47] it became the top box office grosser of the year.^[48] Budhivanta's Telugu dub was also well-received and ran for 50 days in Andhra Pradesh.^[16]

2010–present

2010 marked Upendra's comeback to directing after 10 years. After several ups and downs in his acting career, Upendra came back to direct and act in the 2010 film Super in which he starred alongside Tamil actress Nayantara and Tulip Joshi. The movie was released in a record number of theatres all over Karnataka^[49] and was also dubbed into Telugu and released in Andhra Pradesh. Super broke many box office records upon release and completing 175 days of the run, becoming one of the highest-grossing critically acclaimed Kannada films of 2010.^[22]

Upendra then starred in films like Shrimathi (2011) opposite his wife Priyanka Trivedi and Bollywood actress Celina Jaitly, and Aarakshaka (2012). In 2012, Upendra starred in several commercially successful films such as 3D fantasy film Katari Veera Surasundarangi which was well-received^[50] and became the second-highest-grossing film of the year,^[51] followed by Godfather which performed above average,^[50] and the horror-comedy film Kalpana which performed average at the box office.^[50]

Upendra's films from 2013 to 2015 such as Topiwala (2013), Brahma (2014), Super Ranga (2014) and Shivam (2015) performed poorly in theatres.^[13][52][53]

In 2015, Upendra starred alongside Allu Arjun in the Telugu film S/O Satyamurthy that was directed by Trivikram Srinivas. The film was declared a hit, grossing ₹92 crores and netting over ₹60 crores at the global box office,^[54] becoming the seventh-highest-grossing Telugu film of all time worldwide.^[55]

In 2016, Upendra starred in a sequel to his earlier hit horror film Kalpana titled as Kalpana 2 which became an average grosser at the box office.^[56] He also starred along with Sudeep in the remake of Bollywood film OMG titled as Mukunda Murari, which became a box office success and had a 50-day run.^[57]

In 2017, he starred in the remake of Soggade Chinni Nayana titled Upendra Matte Baa. In 2019, he starred in I Love You, which released to positive reviews.

In 2022, he starred in Home Minister and made a comeback to Telugu cinema with Ghani in a brief role portraying Varun Tej's father.

In 2023, he starred in Kabzaa, which had a similar theme to the KGF series. The film was a box office failure.^{[citation needed]}

Upcoming projects

His upcoming films include UI and Buddhivantha-2.^[58]