Puri Jagannadh is s an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was born on September 28, 1966, in Pithapuram, Andhra Pradesh, India. He made his directorial debut with the Telugu film Badri starring Pawan Kalyan, Renu Desai, and Ameesha Patel. In 2006, he directed the Telugu film Pokiri, which premiered at the 7th IIFA Film Festival held in Dubai.
The film was later re-made into several Indian languages and brought Puri widespread Indian recognition. He made his Hindi film debut in 2004, with the film Shart: The Challenge. In 2011, he directed the Hindi film Bbuddah… Hoga Terra Baap starring Amitabh Bachchan was archived in the Oscar library.
He also produces films under his co-owned production companies, Puri Jagannadh Touring Talkies, Vaishno Academy, and Puri Connect in partnership with actress Charmme Kaur.
He owns a music company called Puri Sangeet. The box office hits that he directed, in addition to Badri, include films Itlu Sravani Subramanyam, Appu, Idiot, Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi, Sivamani, Pokiri, Desamuduru, Golimaar, Businessman, Iddarammayilatho, Heart Attack, Temper, and iSmart Shankar.
Puri started his film directional career as an assistant director to Ram Gopal Varma for several Telugu films mainly of the action genre. His Telugu film directorial debut, Badri starred Pawan Kalyan. Apart from Telugu films, he has also worked in the Kannada film industry and introduced Puneeth Rajkumar with the film Appu. In 2011 he worked with Amitabh Bachchan in the film Bbuddah… Hoga Terra Baap.
In 2020, Jagannadh directed the action film Liger, which is being produced by Dharma Productions and Charmme Kaur. It stars Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday in lead roles.
His first younger brother, Petla Uma Sankara Ganesh is an MLA from Narsipatnam, YSR Congress Party, while his second younger brother Sairam Shankar is an actor.
He married Lavanya in 1996. The couple has a son, Akash, and a daughter, Pavithra. His son Akash made his film debut as a lead in Mehbooba (2018).