Neelakanta is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works predominantly in Telugu films director. He has received the

National Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate ...

in the screenwriting for the feature '' Show''. He won two National Film Awards & three

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

Personal life

Neelakanta is a native of

Kadapa Kadapa (colonial spelled Cuddapah) is a city in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located in the Rayalaseema region, and is the district headquarters of YSR Kadapa district. As of the 2022 Census of India, the city had a popul ...

, Andhra Pradesh. He studied at Loyola Public School and Loyola College in Vijayawada. Since his school days, Neelakanta has had a deep love for film direction and film making which is what drove him to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

after his graduation.

Career

Neelakanta always wanted to make films which eloquently depicted the psychological study of characters for the off-beat his passion materialised with Show followed by ''

Missamma ''Missamma'' () is a 1955 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by L. V. Prasad. It was produced by Nagi Reddi and Chakrapani on Vijaya Productions banner. The film stars N. T. Rama Rao, Savitri, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and ...

''. He received two national awards, one for Best Screenplay and the other for the Best Feature Film in Telugu for ''Show'' while state

Nandi Award The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

in the screenplay department for the latter. He then made ''

Sada Mee Sevalo ''Sadaa Mee Sevalo'' () is a 2005 Telugu movie directed by G. Neelakanta Reddy starring Venu Thottempudi and Shriya Saran. Plot Tilak is a mind games expert and tries to help people in need. He and his friend, who is a lawyer, and a former pol ...

'', with

Shriya Saran Shriya Saran Bhatnagar (; born 11 September 1982) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi-language films. Although Saran aspired to become a well-known dancer, she became an actress with her film debut in 2001 ...

and

Venu Thottempudi Venu Thottempudi (born 4 June 1976) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He has appeared in several successful Telugu films as a lead actor. Career After finishing his engineering from Dharwad Engineering College, Venu star ...

in lead roles, and later made a psychological thriller, ''

Nandanavanam 120km ''Nandhavanam 120 km'' (also known as ''120 km'') is 2006 Telugu language Indian thriller film written directed and produced by G. Neelakanta Reddy. The film was released on 30 June 2006. Plot Amar ( Ajay) is a thief who makes a dea ...

''. Both these films did not do well at the box office. Despite its commercial failure, ''Nanadanavanam'' got him huge critical acclaim. These were followed by '' Mr.Medhavi''. with

Genelia Genelia Deshmukh (née D'Souza; born 5 August 1987) is an Indian actress and model who predominantly appears in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil language films. After gaining wide attention in a Parker Pen commercial with Amitabh Bachchan, D'Souza beg ...

and

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

in the lead roles. This film, produced by

RamaRao Bodduluri Bodduluri Rama Rao ( te, రామారావు బొద్దులూరి), is a former member of legislature of Andhra Pradesh and he is also a Telugu film producer. Early life Bodduluri Ramarao belongs to the RamiReddypally village ...

, proved to be an above-average grosser. He also wrote dialogues for a Telugu remake of the

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

hit ''

A Wednesday! ''A Wednesday!'' is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Anjum Rizvi and Shital Bhatia under UTV Motion Pictures and Friday Filmworks. Though a work of fiction, the s ...

'', entitled ''

Eeenadu ''Unnaipol Oruvan'' (also released internationally under the translated title ''Someone Like You'') is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language vigilante thriller film directed by Chakri Toleti in his directorial debut. It stars Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal ...

''. In 2011, Neelakanta directed '' Virodhi'', featuring

Meka Srikanth Meka Srikanth (born 23 March 1968) is an Indian actor who is known for works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has appeared in more than 120 films. The actor has received one state Nandi Award, and one Filmfare Award South. He has starred in ...

and

Kamalinee Mukherjee Kamalinee Mukherjee is an Indian actress. She has predominantly appeared in Telugu films as well as Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Kannada language films. After graduating with a degree in English literature, she completed a workshop on t ...

. Neelakanta secured the best dialogue writer award in the year 2011 for this film. In 2013 he directed ''

Chammak Challo "Chammak Challo" is a song performed by Akon and Hamsika Iyer, and composed by Akon, Giorgio Tuinfort as well as music director duo Vishal–Shekhar (Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani) and by Gobind Singh, as a part of the soundtrack for t ...

'', which gathered bad reviews for both the director and the film. In 2018, he directed the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

film '' Zam Zam'' starring

Manjima Mohan Manjima Mohan is an Indian actress who primarily appears in Malayalam and Tamil films. She started her career as a child artist in Malayalam films. she made her debut as a lead actress with ''Oru Vadakkan Selfie'' (2015) in Malayalam and ''A ...

. The film is an official remake of the Hindi film

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

Filmography

Awards

; National Film Awards *

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several ...

– 2002 – ''Show'' *

National Film Award for Best Screenplay The National Film Award for Best Screenplay is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one o ...

– 2002 – ''Show'' ;

Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer The Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer was commissioned by the Nandi Awards committee in 1977. The winner is awarded a "Copper Nandi", a cash award of ₹10,000 and a commendation certificate. Most number of Awards were received by Srinu V ...

– '' Show'' (2001) *

– ''

'' (2003) *

Nandi Award for Best Dialogue Writer Winners The Nandi Award for Best Dialogue Writer winners since 1983: References {{DEFAULTSORT:Nandi Award For Best Dialogue Writer Dialogue Writer Screenwriting awards for film ...

– '' Virodhi'' (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neelakanta Telugu film directors Living people Telugu screenwriters Nandi Award winners People from Kadapa district 20th-century Indian film directors 21st-century Indian film directors Film directors from Andhra Pradesh Tamil film directors 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Screenwriters from Andhra Pradesh Best Original Screenplay National Film Award winners Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Indian screenwriters