Director and writer · Telugu cinema
Vikram Kumar
Vikram Kumar movies: 6 Telugu films on file (6 as director, 5 as writer), 2001–2022. Earliest on file: Ishtam (2001). Latest release: Thank You (22 July 2022).
- Films on file
- 6 (6 as director, 5 as writer)
- Years on file
- 2001–2022
- Born
- 1975 (Wikidata)
- Record
- Q7929565 on Wikidata
Vikram Kumar (also credited as Vikram K. Kumar) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu and Tamil cinema. He is known for Yavarum Nalam (2009), released in Hindi as 13B, Ishq, Manam (2014), 24 (2016), Hello (2017) and Nani‘s Gang Leader (2019). His honours include a National Film Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Telugu for Manam.
Early career
Vikram Kumar graduated from Madras Christian College in Chennai. In April 1997 he joined director Priyadarshan as an assistant on the Malayalam film Chandralekha, and he also assisted him on Doli Saja Ke Rakhna and Hera Pheri.
Silent Scream and first features
In 1998 he directed the non-feature film Silent Scream, which won the National Film Award for Best Instructional Film. His first feature was the Telugu film Ishtam (2001). He then made a bilingual with the same lead pair in both versions: Yavarum Nalam in Tamil and 13B in Hindi.
Ishq and Manam
His romance Ishq starred Nithin and Nithya Menen. On the recommendation of Nithin’s father, Nagarjuna heard Vikram Kumar’s script for Manam, and agreed to do it after watching Ishq. Manam (2014), a fantasy comedy drama that Vikram Kumar wrote and directed, starred three generations of the Akkineni family: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya, with Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Shriya Saran. It was screened at the 45th International Film Festival of India in a section honouring Nageswara Rao, and won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu and the Santosham Best Film Award.
24
His science-fiction film 24 (2016) was a box office hit and won two awards at the 64th National Film Awards.
Hello and Gang Leader
He directed Akhil Akkineni in Hello (2017), which drew generally positive reviews but was a below-average grosser, and followed it with the comedy-thriller Gang Leader (2019), starring Nani, another box office success.
Career on file
Vikram Kumar has 6 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 2001 to 2022: six films as director and five films as writer. The earliest of them is Ishtam (2001), and the most recent release is Thank You (2022). The most widely covered of these, counted by Wikipedia language editions, are Manam (2014), Hello (2017) and Ishtam (2001). Other recent releases on file are Gang Leader (2019) and Ishq (2012).
In the films Vikram Kumar directed, Shriya Saran, Naga Chaitanya and Ajay appear most often (two films each). Music on three of them is by Anoop Rubens. Annapurna Studios produced two of them, more than any other banner on file. Across these films the credits on file name 4 music directors and 22 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 5 of them; they average 146 minutes, and the longest is Manam at 163 minutes. Two of them have a streaming (OTT) release noted on the site. By decade the list splits into 2000s (1), 2010s (4) and 2020s (1).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.