The Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu Award is an award issued by the Indian state government of Andhra Pradesh, to recognise lifetime achievements in Telugu cinema. The award was introduced in 1981 in honour of Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, one of India's film pioneers regarded as the "father of Telugu cinema". The winner is presented a Golden Nandi, a gold medal, a citation and a cash prize of ₹50,000 (US$630) at the Nandi Awards functions.

Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, was an Indian filmmaker, photographer, graphic artist, educationist and entrepreneur considered as the father of Telugu cinema. Regarded as one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, Naidu started his career as a commercial photographer in Madras; he was drawn into independent filmmaking, and he traveled to different regions in South east Asia to promote and teach cinematic techniques, filmmaking, and distribute foreign language silent films.