Raj was born in Kasarabad village, grew up in Suryapet, Nalgonda, Telangana and he moved to Hyderabad. He was very enthusiastic in creating teams to play village level Cricket and kabaddi from a very young age. His mother Thota Mani is a House wife and father late Venkat Thota was a Makeup artist for Telugu actor, Mohan Babu. He showed keen interest in photography since an early age.
Career
Early years and it Follows (2000-2014)
Raj’s father Venkat Thota was a make up artist with Mohan Babu and Raj used to accompany his father to the sets during holidays. It was during those visits Raj thought that the director, the cinematographer and the lead actors are the only people who were busy and running hither and thither. So he decided to choose among these three crafts, and he chose to be a cinematographer. He expressed his desire to his father and Venkat Thota joined Raj with his colleague T. Surendra Reddy the cinematographer, where he worked for different genres of films for several years, including the Hindi films directed by Mani Shankar at Hyderabad. Later, he worked with DOP Mohan Krishna and worked for Hindi films like Ishqiya, R... Rajkumar, Do Lafzon Ki Kahani and Force 2 and several commercials as a second unit cameraman. Raj has done a lot of ‘clash work’ for films including Geethanjali, Ra Ra... Krishnayya, Cinema Choopistha Mava and Pellichoopulu. In 2016, director Sandeep Vanga gave the opportunity to Raj to debut as the cinematographer for Vijay Devarakonda's film Arjun Reddy, which was runaway hit, the winner of Best Actor in the 65th Filmfare Awards South and Santhosham Award to the best debut cinematographer. His later films are Needi Naadi Oke Katha 2018 and Husharu in 2019. Raj was hired by Director Puri Jagannath to be the DOP for the action filmiSmart Shankar.
''Arjun Reddy''
Raj made his debut as cinematographer with the movie, Arjun Reddy. For the 4 min single shot of following an actor from exterior to interior Raj Practised with Gimbal rig for one full day before executing the shot. Shots of the Bike sequence shot with Gimbal rig and close ups in Arjun Reddy were well appreciated.
Continued success (2017–present)
After finishing Arjun Reddy, Raj was hired to shoot director Venu Udugula's 2018 film Needi Naadi Oke Katha. Venu and Raj decided to adapt Dogme 95school of thought. Raj had to device lengthy shots, candid style and more of an available light style, with limited crew adhering to Dogme 95 school of thought. He collaborated with Producer Bekkam Venugopal to shoot Husharu much before Needi Naadi Oke Katha being theatrically released in both the Telugu states on 23 March 2018. In Husharu film for Undiporaadey pathos version song, he designed a Body rig to be mounted on actors to get the particular mood of the song.
