Director, writer and producer · Telugu cinema
Sudheer Varma
Sudheer Varma movies: 8 Telugu films on file (6 as director, 6 as writer, 1 as producer), 2013–2024. Earliest on file: Swamy Ra Ra (2013). Latest release: Appudo Ippudo Eppudo (8 November 2024).
- Films on file
- 8 (6 as director, 6 as writer, 1 as producer)
- Years on file
- 2013–2024
- Selected films on file
- Saakini Daakini, Ranarangam, Dohchay
- Record
- Q19599736 on Wikidata
Sudheer Varma (Sudheer Varma Kucharlapati, born 6 October 1979) is an Indian film director and writer in Telugu cinema. He made his debut with the crime comedy Swamy Ra Ra (2013) and went on to direct Dohchay (2015), Keshava (2017) and Ranarangam (2019).
Early life
Varma was born in Bhimavaram, went to school in Visakhapatnam, did his intermediate in Kakinada and grew up in Narasapuram. He trained as an electronics and communication engineer before starting in films as an assistant director.
Swamy Ra Ra
His debut, Swamy Ra Ra, starring Nikhil Siddharth and Swathi Reddy, was a commercial success. The Hindu joked that it would “pick-pocket your brain” and leave viewers feeling richer. It was remade in Kannada as Jamboo Savari.
Later films
His second film, Dohchay (2015), starred Naga Chaitanya and Kriti Sanon. He then made Keshava (2017) with Nikhil Siddharth, Ritu Varma and Isha Koppikar.
Ranarangam
In 2019 he directed Ranarangam for Sithara Entertainments, a non-linear gangster drama starring Sharwanand, Kajal Aggarwal and Kalyani Priyadarshan. To recreate the era before mobile phones, a coastal-city set was built for it at an aluminium factory.
Style and influences
Varma says he is shaped largely by foreign films and admires Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. His favourite Indian directors include Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma, Rajkumar Santoshi and Rajkumar Hirani. He watches many films in a genre before starting a project and adapts scenes he likes to suit Telugu audiences. He openly credits the directors who inspired him, and in Keshava‘s special thanks card he named each one.
Career on file
Sudheer Varma has 8 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 2013 to 2024: six films as director, six films as writer and one film as producer. The earliest of them is Swamy Ra Ra (2013), and the most recent release is Appudo Ippudo Eppudo (2024). The most widely covered of these, counted by Wikipedia language editions, are Saakini Daakini (2022), Ranarangam (2019) and Dohchay (2015). Other recent releases on file are Super Over (2021), Kirrak Party (2018) and Keshava (2017).
In the films Sudheer Varma directed, Nikhil Siddharth appears most often (three films). Music on six of them is by Sunny M. R.. Sri Venkateswara Cine Chitra produced two of them, more than any other banner on file. Across these films the credits on file name 2 different directors, 7 music directors and 18 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 8 of them; they average 123 minutes, and the longest is Kirrak Party at 151 minutes. Four of them have a streaming (OTT) release noted on the site. By decade the list splits into 2010s (5) and 2020s (3).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.