15 Telangana Film Directors Who Made An Impact On Telugu Cinema

It is not possible to forget the movie Needi Naadi Oke Katha long after watching it. It is equally tough to ignore its director Venu Udugula after this movie. He stuck to his vision despite many rejections and made the film based on Dogme 95 manifesto. This Sree Vishnu starrer made a big impact on both the critics and audience and got high acclaim after its release. Venu Udugula is sure to become a big league director in the coming time. 

Oh boy! What can be talked about this physiotherapist turned director Sandeep Reddy Vanga eh? Nobody has imagined that a film like ‘Arjun Reddy’ starring Vijay Deverakonda, his debut directorial, could be made in Telugu film industry. It broke all the conventional, age-old methods of filmmaking and showed us an honest, intense love story in realistic terms. Hailing from Warangal and settled in Hyderabad, Sandeep Reddy is another exceptionally talented director that Telangana State should always be proud of. 

Those who watched Yevade Subrahmanyam can say that Nag Ashwin is a good director. But with Mahanati he joined the big league. This young filmmaker from Hyderabad dared to dream a dream which even the veterans of the veterans cannot even in their dreams. Mahanati the biopic on legendary Savitri got great feedback and was termed as this is how a biopic should be done. 

Born in Machanapally village of Karimnagar district, Surender Reddy made a kickass entry into Tollywood with ‘Athonakkade’.  This young director is known for designing unique styles to his heroes. Along with volatile action episodes, Surender Reddy’s films are very well weaved with extremely comical elements. Ravi Teja’s ‘Kick’ and Allu Arjun’s ‘Race Gurram’ are the two perfect examples of his action-plus-comedy approach. 

Unlike many filmmakers, Sankalp Reddy’s journey into movies is a bit unusual. Born in Hyderabad, this 27-year-old Engineer went to Australia to complete his MBA. Instead of pursuing the MBA, he put a full stop to it just after a semester and joined filmmaking course at the same University. Back in Hyderabad, he started to put his all efforts to make a movie that is centred around 1971 Indo-Pak submarine war. After several attempts, the film got materialised and became a huge success in the form of ‘Ghazi’. 

Born in Adilabad, director Vamsy Paidipally has always been fascinated by films. A small theatre owned by his father got him exposed to all kinds of cinema from his very childhood. After working for a while in the software industry, he joined as an assistant director for few films where he got acquainted with star producer Dil Raju, who produced his first movie Munna. In the later years, he made masala entertainers like Yevadu with Ram Charan and critically acclaimed movies like Oopiri with Nagarjuna.

Literally, the year 2016 belongs to Tharun Bhascker. His debut directorial Pelli Choopulu became such a big hit that it gave immense confidence to all the aspiring filmmakers. His journey from an independent short filmmaker to a National award winner is beyond inspiration. There are so many expectations on this Pakka Hyderabadi. We wish he would bring more and more of Telangana social life onto the silver screen and continue to win several awards.

Perhaps N Shankar is the first film director that invariably comes to our minds whenever there is a discussion around ‘Telangana and Filmmaking’. This avid reader and a great admirer of Chalam, Kaloji, Sri Sri and many other revolutionary writers, made his entry into Telugu film industry with ‘Encounter’. He has always attempted to tell stories that weren’t touched by mainstream filmmakers. His film on Telangana movement ‘Jai Bolo Telangana' stands as a reference point to future generations to know about the long struggle for a separate statehood. 

B. Narising Rao is one towering figure from Telangana, who started the alternative cinema in Tollywood. He has directed five feature films and four documentaries till now, and all of them speak for the oppressed people of Telangana. The 1980 film ‘Maa Bhoomi’, which he has produced under Gautham Ghose’s direction is forever remembered for realistically portraying the lives of landless peasants during the Telangana rebellion (1946-1951). Interestingly, Narsing Rao is the first one to recognise the mesmerising talent of revolutionary singer Gaddar. Both of them hail from Medak district.

Kranthi Madhav is one of the well appreciated filmmakers to emerge from Telangana region. After making his debut with multiple award winning Onamalu, he made a big mark with the cult classic Malli Malli Idi Raani Roju with Sharwanand and Nithya Menen. Known for his sensible stories, he tried to turn a leaf with comedy genre (Ungarala Rambabu with Sunil) and romance (World Famous Lover with Vijay Deverakonda).

Anudeep has created a huge sensation with his latest offering Jathi Ratnalu which is recognised as a classic of the logicless comedy. He made his directorial debut with the film Pittaboda. He’s a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin films and love the humour in his films where he gets caught up in crazy situations and he somehow wriggles out of them. He started his journey with the short film Missed call whose concept too has played a role in Jathi Ratnalu comedy set pieces.

Venu Sriram is one of the most talked about filmmakers of late as he delivered one of the biggest hits in the career of Pawan Kalyan. Despite facing many troubles post release due to pandemic and ticket price issues, the movie went on to collect the highest share in the career of the Power Star and helped his re-entry a grand success. Venu Sriram is from Medipally near Jagithyal. He started as an assistant director and worked with directors such as Boyapati, Sukumar, and Vamshi Paidipally etc. before his debut with Oh My Friend. It was with Natural Star Nani’s MCA he scored his maiden hit. And after a gap, he’s now in big league thanks to Vakeel Saab.

Allani Sridhar is another prominent personality from Telangana. His very first film ‘Komaram Bheem’, a biopic based on the tribal leader by the same name, has won the state government Nandi award. Even his Hindi films were very well appreciated by critics. In fact, his debut Hindi venture ‘Tuhi Meri Ganga’ earned him best director award at the International Film Fest, U.S.A. He is the first president of Telangana Directors Association that formed in 2013.

Dasarath aka Kondapally Dasarath Kumar comes from Khammam district. This soft-spoken gifted filmmaker made his directorial debut with a super hit family entertainer ‘Santhosham’. But his career started much prior to ‘Santhosham’. He has apparently worked with noted Telugu fiction writer Yandamoori Veerendranath for soap operas and also assisted directors Teja and YVS Chowdhary. His command over blending youthful love stories with family relationships is witnessed in movies such as ‘Mr Perfect’ and aforementioned ‘Santhosham’ 

This man from Warangal is a well-educated software engineer. After working in many reputed MNCs like TCS, Infosys and Wipro, he left everything behind and embarked on a journey to become a filmmaker. He entered into the film industry by establishing music label Madhura Audio, which is considered as the second largest music company in the Telugu film industry. And within a short period, making his dream come true, he directed his first film ‘Sneha Geetham’. After that, he produced many movies including ‘Oka Manasu’, a debut film of Niharika Konidela.    

Sampath Nandi hails from historic Hanmakonda of Warangal district. Although his film career started with a small film titled ‘Yemaindi Ee Vela’, this young director could somehow enter the Mega compound for his very second movie ‘Racha’. Cleverly dealing with all the commercial elements, the director presented Ram Charan in a perfect masala entertainer. Sampath Nandi was also supposed to direct Pawan Kalyan’s ‘Sardar Gabbar Singh’ but was dropped out of the project for unknown reasons.

Harish Shankar is another talented youngster who comes from RGV compound. His first film Shock was produced by Ram Gopal Varma himself. To put it frankly, his directorial Gabbar Singh brought back the faltering fame of Pawan Kalyan who cemented his place in the Telugu film industry. Harish’s command over the Telugu language is just remarkable. You can see it in every film of his. We wish he makes many more entertaining films with all the superstars of Indian cinema.