Director, writer and actor · Telugu cinema
A. Karunakaran
A. Karunakaran movies: 10 Telugu films on file (10 as director, 8 as writer, 2 as actor), 1998–2018. Earliest on file: Tholi Prema (1998). Latest release: Tej I Love You (6 July 2018).
- Films on file
- 10 (10 as director, 8 as writer, 2 as actor)
- Years on file
- 1998–2018
- Selected films on file
- Happy, Balu ABCDEFG, Endukante... Premanta!
- Record
- Q4648046 on Wikidata
A. Karunakaran (born 25 December 1971) is an Indian film director who works in Telugu cinema. He is known for Tholi Prema (1998), Happy (2006), Ullasamga Utsahamga (2008) and Darling (2010). His debut, Tholi Prema, is regarded as one of the most iconic romantic films in Telugu cinema.
Early career
Karunakaran started as a clap director on Kadhal Desam (1996) after Sasi introduced him to the director Kathir. He then assisted Bhagyaraj and Shankar before directing his own film.
Tholi Prema
Karunakaran wrote and directed Tholi Prema, a romantic drama starring Pawan Kalyan and Keerthi Reddy. He developed the script in Madras. He chose his lead after seeing Pawan Kalyan’s photograph on the cover of a Telugu film magazine in Chennai. After hearing the story, Kalyan introduced him to producer G. V. G. Raju. The film was a major hit and is considered Pawan Kalyan’s breakthrough. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu and six state Nandi Awards, and it ran for more than 365 days. It was later remade in Kannada and Hindi.
Mixed fortunes
His second film, Yuvakudu, marked the screen debut of Bhumika Chawla but did not succeed. Vasu (2002) did modest business at first but built a cult following over the years. A second film with Pawan Kalyan, Balu ABCDEFG (2005), failed to repeat the success of Tholi Prema.
Happy
Happy (2006) is a romantic action comedy produced by Allu Aravind under Geetha Arts, starring Allu Arjun and Genelia. It is a remake of the Tamil film Azhagiya Theeye, and Karunakaran wrote its screenplay. The film’s own article says it drew generally positive reviews but underperformed on its first release in Andhra Pradesh. Its Malayalam dubbed version, Happy Be Happy, was a blockbuster in Kerala and ran for over 175 days.
Later films
Karunakaran won acclaim for Ullasamga Utsahamga (2008), which starred the newcomer Yasho Sagar, and Darling (2010) opened to positive reviews. He then made a bilingual film, Endhukante Premanta in Telugu and Yen Endral Kadhal Enben in Tamil. The Telugu version drew negative reviews, and the Tamil version was never released. His later films Chinnadana Nee Kosam (2014) and Tej I Love You (2018) received mixed reviews.
Career on file
A. Karunakaran has 10 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 1998 to 2018: ten films as director, eight films as writer and two films as actor. The earliest of them is Tholi Prema (1998), and the most recent release is Tej I Love You (2018). Measured by how many Wikipedia language editions cover them, the best-known titles here are Happy (2006), Balu ABCDEFG (2005) and Endukante... Premanta! (2012). Other recent releases on file are Chinnadana Nee Kosam (2014), Darling (2010) and Ullasamga Utsahamga (2008).
In the films A. Karunakaran directed, Brahmanandam appears most often (three films), ahead of Bhumika Chawla (2) and Pawan Kalyan (2). Music on three of them is by G. V. P. Prakash Kumar, with Mani Sharma (2) next. Creative Commercials produced two of them, more than any other banner on file. Across these films the credits on file name 7 music directors and 37 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 9 of them; they average 151 minutes, and the longest is Balu ABCDEFG at 169 minutes. Two of them have a streaming (OTT) release noted on the site. By decade the list splits into 1990s (1), 2000s (5) and 2010s (4).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.