Babu collaborated with Koratala Siva for the action drama film Srimanthudu co-starring Shruti Haasan. He co-produced the film under his newly formed banner G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, marking his first film production venture.[84] He opted to do so in order to control the film's budget, accepting a share in profits in lieu of remuneration.[85] Released on 7 August 2015, Srimanthudu opened to positive reviews from critics,[86] was commercially successful, and he gained the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu at the 63rd Filmfare Awards South,[87] marking his resurgence.[88] Sethumadhavan N. of Bangalore Mirror stated, Srimanthudu wouldn't have been as effective if it did not have Mahesh Babu who is at his charming best, adding that he "underplays the emotional scenes, making them a treat to watch".[89]

The film was a commercial success, grossing nearly ₹2.0 billion globally on a budget of ₹400-700 million and becoming the second-highest grossing Telugu film of all time and the highest grossing Telugu-language-only movie. After the film's release, many actors, bureaucrats and politicians announced plans to develop backward villages and encouraged the adoption of villages in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.[90] Babu himself has adopted his native village, Burripalem.[91]

Babu acted in Srikanth Addala's film Brahmotsavam co-starring Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Pranitha Subhash. Originally produced as a bi-lingual, the film would've marked Babu's first straight Tamil film. However, later on the plan was altered due to its disastrous performance at the Telugu box office and the film wasn't released in Tamil.[92] While the film underperformed at the box office, the Deccan Chronicle stated that Mahesh Babu was its saving grace. The film was criticised by the public, for its lack of a proper story.[93] Babu stated that this was an error of judgement, where he had picked the wrong director.[94] He later appeared in the Telugu-Tamil bilingual Spyder, directed by A. R. Murugadoss, which finally marked his Tamil cinema debut[95] and grossed over ₹113 crores at the box office.[96] His next film was a political action drama Bharat Ane Nenu, directed by Koratala Siva and co-starring Kiara Advani. In this film, he played the role of a chief minister. It went on grossed more than ₹187 crore, and was second highest-grossing film of that year.[97] His next film, Maharshi (2019) collected a total of ₹175 crore wordwide.[98] Hemanth Kumar of firstpost mentioned the film owes a lot to Mahesh Babu’s conviction to pull off his role and he makes you believe in his characterisation so much that it doesn’t feel like fiction. His flamboyance in the college sequences and the maturity with which he pulled off the village segments is noteworthy.[99] His 2020 film Sarileru Neekevvaru collected ₹260 crores in worldwide box office, becoming one of the highest-grossing Telugu film.[100][101] Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost mentioned Sarileru Neekevvaru packages oodles of humour and action in right measures for Babu to hit the ball out of the park. Everything else is just a bonus or a distraction.[102] Babu's next film, Sarkaru Vaari Paata will mark his maiden collaboration with director Parasuram