M. S. Raju is an Indian film producer, director, and screenwriter who works in

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

. He is the founder and owner of the

film production Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

company

Sumanth Art Productions Sumanth Art Productions is an Indian film production company in Hyderabad established by M. S. Raju. Successful films like ''Manasantha Nuvve'' (2001)'', Okkadu'' (2003)'', Varsham'' (2004)'', Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana'' (2005) were made und ...

. He won three

Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...

becoming the first producer to receive three consecutive Filmfare Awards for the films ''

Okkadu ''Okkadu'' ( The One) is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language sports action film co-written and directed by Gunasekhar and produced by M. S. Raju. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Bhumika Chawla and Prakash Raj.The music was composed by Mani Sharma, w ...

'' (2003), '' Varsham'' (2004), and ''

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana ''Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana'' (; ) is a 2005 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by Prabhu Deva in his directorial debut and produced by M. S. Raju under Sumanth Art Productions. The film stars Srihari, Siddharth, and Tr ...

'' (2005). He also produced the successful films ''

Sathruvu ''Sathruvu'' () is a 1991 Indian Telugu-language crime thriller film directed by Kodi Ramakrishna and produced by M. S. Raju under Sumanth Art Productions. It stars Venkatesh, Vijayashanti, and Kota Srinivasa Rao with music composed by Raj–K ...

'' (1991), ''

Devi ''Devī'' (; ) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is Deva (Hinduism), ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The concept ...

'' (1999), ''

Manasantha Nuvve ''Manasantha Nuvve'' () is a 2001 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film directed by V. N. Aditya. This film stars Uday Kiran and Reema Sen in the lead roles. The film was written and produced by M. S. Raju and had music composed by R. P ...

'' (2001), and ''

Nee Sneham ''Nee Sneham'' () is a 2002 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film directed by Paruchuri Murali, and written and produced by M. S. Raju on Sumanth Art Productions banner. The film stars Uday Kiran, Aarti Agarwal, and Jatin Grewal. ''Nee ...

'' (2002).

Early life

M. S. Raju's father, Rayaparaju, owned hundreds of acres of land in erstwhile

West Godavari district The West Godavari district is a coastal district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with an administrative headquarters in Bhimavaram. As of the 2011 Census of India, the district has an area of and a population of 1,779,935. It is bounded ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. Rayaparaju sold all of their properties there and migrated to

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

. Producer Arjuna Raju, of Roja Movies, is a cousin of his father. Inspired by him, his father became a film producer and made five to six films.

Career

M. S. Raju was interested in films right from his childhood. After completing his education, he started his career in films with the help of a friend. He made a film titled ''Manavadostunnadu'' (1987) with Arjun and Sobhana in the lead roles. His father's good will helped him in getting financiers. He established a new

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

called '

' named after his son. The first film made on the banner was ''

'' (1991) starring

Venkatesh Venkatesh is a given name and family name from the Indian subcontinent derived from Venkateswara, a Hindu deity. Notable persons with the name include: * A. Venkatesh Naik (1936 - 2015), member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India * A. Venkatesh (direc ...

Vijayashanti Moturi Vijaya Shanthi (born 24 June 1966) is an Indian actress, film producer and politician. In a film career spanning 40 years, she has acted in 187 feature films in a variety of roles in various languages predominantly in Telugu language, Te ...

, and

Kota Srinivasa Rao Kota Srinivasa Rao (born 10 July 1942) is an Indian character actor known for his work primarily in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He has also starred in a few films in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hindi cinema, Hindi, Kannada cinema, Kannada and Ma ...

and directed by

Kodi Ramakrishna Kodi Ramakrishna (23 July 1949 – 22 February 2019) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his work in Telugu cinema. Over the course of his career, he directed more than 100 films across various genres, earning a repu ...

. M. S. Raju himself provided the basic story idea of the film and

Satyamurthy Satyamurthy (; ), also variously romanized as Satyamoorthy, Satyamurthi, Satyamurti, Sathyamurthy and other variants, is a Tamil and Telugu masculine given name and surname, meaning "manifestation of the Truth" (compare ''murti''). Notable people w ...

was roped in as a writer to develop the storyline. The film was also dubbed into

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

. ''Sathruvu'' was commercially successful in both Telugu and Tamil. His next film was ''Police Lock-up'' (1993) starring Vijayashanti in a dual role. ''Police Lock-up'' also became a big hit. The Tamil dubbed version of the film was also successful. His next film was ''Street Fighter'' starring Vijayashanti with

B. Gopal Bejawada Gopal is an Indian film director who works in Telugu cinema. He has directed over 30 Telugu films, including successful films such as '' Bobbili Raja'', '' Lorry Driver'', '' Assembly Rowdy'', '' State Rowdy'', '' Rowdy Inspector'', '' ...

as the director. ''Street Fighter'' was a

box-office disaster A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

Personal life

M. S. Raju has two children son

Sumanth Ashwin Sumanth Ashwin is an Indian actor who appears in Telugu films. He is the son of film producer and director M. S. Raju. Ashwin made his debut in 2012 with ''Tuneega Tuneega,'' directed by his father, for which he won CineMAA Awards Best Male D ...

and daughter Rishita. Rishita was born before the release of ''

'' (1999) and there is 11-year gap between Sumanth and Rishita. Sumanth Ashwin made his acting debut with the film ''

Tuneega Tuneega ''Tuneega Tuneega'' is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by M. S. Raju. Starring Sumanth Ashwin and Rhea Chakraborty, the film is produced by Maganti Ramji under Padmini Arts banner. Distributed by Dil ...

'' (2012), under M. S. Raju's direction.

Filmography

As producer

As director

Awards

;

Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Indian cinema.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were introduced by Filmfare magazine of The Times G ...

Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu) The Filmfare Award for Best Film is given by the '' Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. The award was first given in 1954. Here is a list of the award winners and the nominees of the respective years. E ...

- ''

'' (2003) *Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu) - '' Varsham'' (2004) *Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu) - ''

'' (2005) ;

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are annual awards presented by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to recognise excellence in Telugu cinema, theatre, and television, as well as lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. The awards are named after the monolithic ...

Nandi Award for Best Feature Film This is the list of winners of the Nandi Award for Best Feature Films since 1964. Best Feature Film - Gold Second Best Feature Film - Silver Third Best Feature Film - Bronze References See also * Cinema of Andhra Pradesh {{DEFAULTSORT:Na ...

- ''

'' (2003) *Nandi Award for Best Feature Film - ''

'' (2005)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raju, M.S Living people Telugu film producers 21st-century Indian people Indian film directors Film directors from Andhra Pradesh People from Andhra Pradesh Filmfare Awards South winners Indian film producers Film producers from Andhra Pradesh Telugu film directors Nandi Award winners 1958 births