Inside the Love Story of Sobhita and Naga Chaitanya

Inside the Love Story of Sobhita and Naga Chaitanya :

Sobhita Dhulipala and Naga Chaitanya Akkineni, two Telugu-speaking actors, had little in common at first. Dhulipala was based in Mumbai, Akkineni in Hyderabad. They grew up in different cities: she in Visakhapatnam, he in Chennai. Dhulipala only followed back after an Instagram Q&A session pointed it out to her, and she realised Akkineni had followed her earlier. This got her to follow him back, where a spark was ignited when he started posting about the food that he made at his co owned pan-Asian cloud kitchen, Shoyu. Their online exchanges eventually led to Akkineni travelling to Mumbai for a lunch date with Dhulipala in April 2022.

The couple appeared virtually from their home, where they were separate because of their jobs, to discuss. Dhulipala was shooting in Chennai, Akkineni was at her home in Hyderabad. They talked about the difficulty of juggling their hectic schedules with their new married life, which kicked off in December 2024. In their busy careers, they do what they can to carve out time together, coordinating their schedules months in advance. Dhulipala, who hails from Visakhapatnam and whose parents are a sailor and a teacher, didn’t see herself marrying an actor or moving to Hyderabad. But she was attracted to Akkineni's character and perspective. They were private about their relationship at first, giving themselves time to process their feelings before going public.

Akkineni was born to a notable Tollywood film family, as his father is actor and producer Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao, and his mother, Laxmi Daggubati, is the daughter of film producer D Ramanaidu. And that he has always remained level-headed, even with film successes and failures, is something Dhulipala truly admires about Akkineni. This Dhulipala is far away from her moody on-screen characters — in person she is warm and articulate. A reserved public figure, she blames part of her image on the characters she has played and some social awkwardness. Akkineni says, though, that she has a tendency to look serious in photographs even when she thinks she’s smiling.

Telugu is the mother tongue of the couple, and Dhulipala is fluent in it. This linguistic connection has become an integral aspect of their relationship, with Akkineni what he appreciates with her fluency and capitalizing his own Telugu proficiency. Their relationship evolved organically, with no single turning point. They took the traditional route, first meeting each other’s families before Akkineni proposed. The wedding itself, in Hyderabad, featured traditional attire; Dhulipala designed her own silk saris and jewelry. Although both are public figures, they both opt to keep their private lives just that—private. They seldom show private moments on social media, this interview being one of them. It also means that the Instagram friendship that initially bonded the two has become a less important part of their day to day lives.