S. S. Rajamouli is undoubtedly the first craftsman of the Telugu film fraternity to achieve stardom across the length and breadth of the country; this is particularly significant in the Hindi belt, where he has established himself as a brand that needs no introduction; the mammoth success of RRR Hindi version is a proof of that.
Keeping aside this’man of the millennium’, there are hardly any filmmakers from Tollywood with such esteemed super-stardom throughout the nation. While Sandeep Reddy Vanga is without doubt a superstar director, his work doesn’t fall under the mainstream category for obvious reasons. Having said that, the question, “Who’s the next Rajamouli?” remains unanswered. Well, dear readers, this is the exact subject this article aims to dissect: Prashanth Varma, the man behind the blockbuster super-her flick Hanu-Man, can be touted as TFI’s next big thing, or, in other words, the next Rajamouli.
After working on a couple of short films and televison commercials, Varma made his feature film debut with Awe (2018), a psychological cross-genre film starring Kajal Agarwal in the lead role, which received widespread critical acclaim upon release. Basking in the film’s success, he directed Rajasekhar in the investigative thriller Kalki (2019), which ended up being an average venture at the box office. In 2021, he made a comeback with Zombie Reddy, an action comedy set against the backdrop of zombies that was a critical and commercial success.
After a three-year hiatus from films, he co-wrote and directed Hanu-Man, a superhero flick starring his usual choice, Teja Sajja. Premeired amidst high expectations, the film received rave reviews from audiences, who lavished praise on Varma’s screenwriting, direction, and visualisation of Lord Hanuman. Expectedly, it went on to become a huge commercial success, not just in Telugu but also in Hindi. The film’s success encapsulated Varma’s superstardom among cinephiles across the nation.
Needless to say, this was a major breakthrough in Varma’s career; as announced before, a saga of superhero films in the same universe, Prashanth Varma Cinematic Universe (PVCU), are in development, which includes a direct sequel to Hanu-Man titled ‘Jai Hanu-Man‘, ‘Adhira’, which marks the acting debut of Kalyan Dasari and an untitled female superhero film. It must be seen how this young lad will handle this enormous superstardom at such a young age.
