Director and writer · Telugu cinema
Prasanth Varma
Prasanth Varma movies: 4 Telugu films on file (4 as director, 2 as writer), 2018–2024. Earliest on file: Awe (2018). Latest release: Hanu Man (12 January 2024).
- Films on file
- 4 (4 as director, 2 as writer)
- Years on file
- 2018–2024
- Born
- 29 May 1989 · May birthdays (Wikidata)
- Selected films on file
- Hanu Man, Awe, Zombie Reddy
- Record
- Q107312991 on Wikidata
Prasanth Varma (Prasanth Varma Penmetsa, born 29 May 1989) is an Indian film director and screenwriter in Telugu cinema. He is best known for Awe (2018), Kalki (2019), Zombie Reddy (2021) and Hanu-Man (2024). Hanu-Man is his biggest hit and won the National Film Award for Best Film in AVGC. He also co-founded Scriptsville, an organisation that supports screenwriting in Telugu cinema.
Early life
Varma was born in Palakollu, Andhra Pradesh, to Narayana Raju, a civil contractor, and Kanaka Durga, a government school teacher. At Sri Saraswathi Sisu Mandir in Palakollu he studied an extra subject on stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavatham, which fed a lifelong love of mythology. He graduated from CVR College of Engineering in 2010.
Early career
Varma began in 2011 with the short film Deenamma Jeevitham. He went on to make advertisements and short films such as A Silent Melody and Dialogue in the Dark. In 2015 he directed Not Out, a five-episode web series starring Brian Lara, for YuppTV. He has named Singeetam Srinivasa Rao as his biggest inspiration, along with Christopher Nolan, K. Viswanath and Mani Ratnam.
Awe, Kalki and Zombie Reddy
Varma pitched Awe to Nani, whose Wall Poster Cinema produced it. His 2018 debut was acclaimed for its bold treatment of psychological and social issues and its skilful use of visual effects. Kalki (2019), starring Rajasekhar, was first conceived as a web series and drew mixed reviews. Zombie Reddy (2021), billed as the first Telugu zombie film, was delayed by the COVID-19 lockdown. It then drew positive reviews and did well at the box office, and The Hindu praised how it mixed a pandemic, zombies and Rayalaseema faction rivalry to comic effect.
Hanu-Man
Varma announced Hanu-Man, marketed as the first Telugu superhero film, on 29 May 2021. It stars Teja Sajja as Hanumanthu and Amritha Aiyer as Meenakshi. Released for Sankranti on 12 January 2024, it is the first film in the Prasanth Varma Cinematic Universe, drawn from Indian mythology. Reviews were highly positive. According to the film’s own article, it grossed ₹298–350 crore worldwide.
Scriptsville
After the success of Awe, Varma and his sister Sneha Sameera founded Scriptsville in 2018. Its aim is to improve screenwriting in Telugu cinema and help new writers get recognition and proper credit. It received more than a thousand submissions, started with ten writers, and helped develop scripts including Kalki.
Career on file
Prasanth Varma has 4 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 2018 to 2024: four films as director and two films as writer. The earliest of them is Awe (2018), and the most recent release is Hanu Man (2024). The most widely covered of these, counted by Wikipedia language editions, are Hanu Man (2024), Awe (2018) and Zombie Reddy (2021).
In the films Prasanth Varma directed, Teja Sajja appears most often (two films). Music on two of them is by Mark K. Robin. Across these films the credits on file name 3 music directors and 21 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 4 of them; they average 133 minutes, and the longest is Hanu Man at 158 minutes. Two of them have a streaming (OTT) release noted on the site. By decade the list splits into 2010s (2) and 2020s (2).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.