Sudheer Varma was an Indian film director and writer who worked predominantly in

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

. He made his directorial debut with the film ''

Swamy Ra Ra ''Swamy Ra Ra'' is a 2013 Indian Telugu-language crime comedy film directed by Sudheer Varma in his directorial debut and produced by Chakri Chirugupati under Lakshmi Narasimha Entertainments. It stars Nikhil Siddharth and Swathi Reddy while Po ...

'' (2013). He later directed films such as ''Dochay'' (2015), ''Keshava'' (2017), and '' Ranarangam'' (2019).

Early life

Sudheer Varma hailed from

Bhimavaram Bhimavaram is a city and headquarters of West Godavari district of the Andhra Pradesh state of India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bhimavaram mandal in Bhimavaram revenue division. It is a part of Bhimavaram Urban Development A ...

. Varma was schooled in

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

and completed his intermediate in Kakinada. He grew up in Narasapuram. He was an Electronics and Communication Engineer by profession. He started his career as an assistant director. Varma was married with two children.

Career

Sudheer Varma released his debut directorial venture ''

'' (2013), starring

Nikhil Siddharth Nikhil Siddhartha (born 1 June 1985) is an Indian actor of the Telugu film industry. He played minor roles in various films before being cast in ''Happy Days'' (2007) as one of the four male leads. The film was successful and became his breakth ...

and Swathi Reddy. '' The Hindu'' stated that "the film will pick-pocket your brain and you'll most probably end up feeling richer, if not a millionaire." It was commercially successful at the box office. The film was remade in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as ''

Jamboo Savari Mysore Dasara is the ''Nadahabba'' (state festival) of the state of Karnataka in India. It is a 10-day festival, starting with nine nights called Navaratri and the last day being Vijayadashami. The festival is observed on the tenth day in ...

.'' Varma's second film was '' Dohchay'' (2015), starring Naga Chaitanya and Kriti Sanon. He later directed ''Keshava'' (2017) with

, Ritu Varma, and Isha Kopikar in the lead roles.

Style and influences

Talking about his style Sudheer shared, "I'm influenced largely by foreign films. I am a huge fan of

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensemb ...

, Christopher Nolan,

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spi ...

, and Martin Scorsese. Their work has been very important to me, in regards to my learning. As for my style, whenever I do a film, I watch a lot of films from the same genre. If I see anything interesting, I adapt it. The story structure is mine and in place even before I've thought of possible inspirations. After that, I might adapt some scenes in my films, from others. Still, I do the screenplay to suit our audience. I don't want the audience to get disconnected from my film, so I make sure our audience relate to it." In another interview he said, "According to me, inspiration or copying, both are the same. That's why I give credit to the directors from whom I steal the scenes. '' Keshava'' too, is inspired from several films, but not any one particular film. So, in the special thanks card, I mentioned each director from whose films I took inspiration for ''Keshava''. This is my way of paying tribute to the scenes that have left a great impact on me. My favourite Indian directors are

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...

, Ram Gopal Varma,

Rajkumar Santoshi Rajkumar Santoshi is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter of Hindi films. Having received several accolades including three National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards, he made his directorial debut with the crime film '' Ghaya ...

, and Rajkumar Hirani."

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varma, Sudheer 20th-century births Telugu screenwriters Telugu film directors Film directors from Andhra Pradesh People from West Godavari district 21st-century Indian film directors Screenwriters from Andhra Pradesh Year of birth missing (living people)