Reddy was born near Nellore, in a small beach town Mypadu, into an agricultural family. Reddy is married to Bharathi. Their elder son, Sunil Reddy, is a businessman-turned-actor in Tamil cinema. He made his film debut, in Seethakaathi (2018), in which he played a negative role.[6] He directed the 2007 film, Godava, under his home production, to launch his second son, Vaibhav Reddy.[7][8]
Reddy made around 94 movies and almost 90% of them were successful. He was also one of the foremost directors, who introduced Ilaiyaraaja to give music for big budget films, in Telugu cinema. His films: Abhilasha, Challenge, Kirathakudu, Rakshasudu, and Kondaveeti Donga were big musical hits of the Chiranjeevi-Reddy-Ilaiyaraaja-Yandamuri Veerendranath combination. He was primarily responsible for Chiranjeevi's Supreme Hero and Mega Star monikers, which started with Khaidi, that released just a few months after Abhilasha, in 1983. Afterwards, he went on to make several blockbusters with Chiranjeevi. The pair earned great reputation with action and thriller films in Telugu cinema.
