Prakash Varma is an Indian filmmaker who is known for directing and producing advertisement campaigns. He has directed commercials for

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

featuring the ZooZoos, Incredible India,

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

and the

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

. Varma is the co-founder of Nirvana Films, a

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

-based production company, for which he has directed commercials for

Kit Kat Kit Kat (stylised as KitKat in various countries) is a chocolate-covered wafer bar Confectionery, confection created by Rowntree's of York, England. It is produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United S ...

Bisleri Bisleri International (formerly Parle Exports and Parle Bisleri) is an Indian multinational company which is best known for the eponymous brand of bottled water. The company was started in the 1970s by Ramesh Chauhan, and sells bottled water a ...

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

PhonePe PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. It was founded in December 2015, by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer. The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Paymen ...

and

UltraTech Cement UltraTech Cement Limited is an Indian multinational cement company based in Mumbai. It is the largest manufacturer of grey cement, ready-mix concrete (RMC) and white cement in India, and the fifth largest in the world, with an installed capaci ...

. He has also directed campaigns for

Kerala Tourism Kerala, a state situated on the tropical Malabar Coast of southwestern India, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. Named as one of the ''ten paradises of the world'' by ''National Geographic Traveler'', Kerala is famo ...

and Dubai Tourism, which featured

Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as the "Padishah, Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has Shah Rukh K ...

. In 2009, American filmmaker

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget high-concept action films with fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special eff ...

hired Varma to direct commercials for his company The Institute. Varma debuted as an actor in

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

starrer '' Thudarum'' (2025), where he received critical acclaim for his performance.

Early life

Varma was born and brought up in

Alappuzha Alappuzha (, आलप्पुळ) or Alleppey is a municipality and town on the Laccadive Sea in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is the district headquarters of the district, and is located about north of the state capital Thiruvana ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India. His father and mother were teachers. He is an alumnus of SD College, Alappuzha. Varma is nephew to Malayalam film actor

Jagannatha Varma K. N. Jagannatha Varma (1 May 1939 – 20 December 2016) was an Indian actor who worked in Malayalam film and television industry. He was also a Kathakali artist. His son Manu Varma is also an artist and his son-in-law Viji Thampi is a film d ...

. He has four brothers. In an interview, Varma said that he knows his family is related to painter

Raja Ravi Varma Raja Ravi Varma () (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. Especially, he was notable f ...

, but has "no clue how". He worked in

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

before pursuing his passion in filmmaking.

Career

After graduation from college, Varma worked as an assistant director to filmmakers A. K. Lohithadas and

Viji Thampi Viji Thampi is an Indian film director, actor, right-wing politician, and social activist who works in Malayalam films. Thampi is a member of Thiruvananthapuram regional board of the Central Board of Film Certification and the State Advisor of ...

. He began his commercial career as an assistant to ad filmmaker V.K. Prakash. After three years of assisting Prakash under the ad company Trends, in 2001, Varma and his wife set up their own production house, Nirvana Films, in

. The company's first notable ad was for WagonR's ''Feel at Home'' series, which won an awards for the best campaign of 2001. He also directed ad for Bajaj XCD 135. His campaign for

Hutch Hutch may refer to: Places * Hutch, Kentucky, an unincorporated community located in Bell County, Kentucky, United States * Hutchinson, Kansas ("Hutch"), a city in Kansas, United States * Hutchinson, Minnesota ("Hutch"), a city in Minnesota, U ...

featuring a

pug The Pug is a breed of dog with the physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. An ancient breed, with roots dating back to 400 B.C., they have a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most ...

was so popular that the price for pugs rose in India. He has also done ad for

Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and LTE Advanced ...

. He directed campaigns for

featuring the characters ZooZoos, sketched by himself. He then went on to make notable ads, including

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

Hyundai Santro The Hyundai Santro is a city car produced by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai between 1998 and 2014. The nameplate was revived in 2018 to replace the Eon, and was produced until 2022. The "Santro" nameplate was applied during its first gener ...

Chevrolet Optra The Chevrolet Optra is an automotive nameplate used by the Chevrolet marque for three different compact car models, in the following markets: *Daewoo Lacetti The Daewoo Lacetti is a compact car manufactured and marketed globally by GM Korea sin ...

, Frooti,

Lee Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lee'' (2007 film), Tamil-language sports action film * ''Lee'' (2017 film), Kannada-language action film * ''Lee'' (2023 film), biographical drama about Lee Miller, American photojournalist * ''L ...

Pond's Pond's is an English brand of beauty and health care products, currently owned by Unilever. History Pond's Cream was invented in the United States as a patent medicine by pharmacist Theron T. Pond (1800–1852) of Utica, New York, in 1846. M ...

. In 2009, American filmmaker

hired Varma to direct commercials for his company The Institute. He also directed ads for Cadbury Gems,

Cadbury Dairy Milk Cadbury Dairy Milk is a British brand of milk chocolate manufactured by Cadbury. First introduced in the United Kingdom in June 1905 and now consists of a number of products. Every product in the Dairy Milk line is made exclusively with milk choc ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, Kerala Tourism, Rajasthan Tourism, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, West Bengal Tourism, and Incredible India. In 2013, he produced the Malayalam film '' Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal'' directed by

Lal Jose Lal Jose is an Indian director, actor, producer, and distributor who works in the Malayalam film industry. He started his career as an Assistant director in the Malayalam cinema. His directorial debut was with the 1998 film '' Oru Maravat ...

and also directed a promo song in the film, "Pettidamaarum Aapathil". His ad for Greenply served as the inspiration for

Lijo Jose Pellissery Lijo Jose Pellissery (born 18 September 1978) is an Indian filmmaker and actor who works in Malayalam cinema. His best works include ''Amen'' (2013), '' Angamaly Diaries'' (2017), '' Ee.Ma.Yau.'' (2018), ''Jallikattu'' (2019), '' Churuli'' (202 ...

's 2022 film '' Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam''. In 2025, he made his acting debut with '' Thudarum'', playing CI George Mathan, for which he received widespread critical acclaim.

Personal life

Varma married Sneha Iype, whom he met when the two were working in V. K. Prakash's Trends in

. The couple has twin sons. In 2001, they founded the production company Nirvana Films. He resides in Whitefield, Bengaluru.

Early life

Career

Personal life

Filmography

References

External links