Sukumar

Sukumar was born on 11 January 1970,[1][2] in Mattaparru, a village near Malikipuram in erstwhile East Godavari district (present-day Konaseema district) of Andhra Pradesh.[5] His father Tirupathi Rao Naidu was a rice trader and his mother Veera Veni was a homemaker. Sukumar was the youngest of the six children of Naidu and Veni. At the age of 6, following the slaughter of a rooster he loved, Sukumar practiced vegetarianism for a long time.[5]

He did his schooling from Zilla Parishad High School, Razole and graduated with a master's degree in mathematics.[6] He later worked as a mathematics and physics lecturer in Aditya Junior college, Kakinada.[7] After nearly seven years,[8][9] Sukumar and his junior Prakash Toleti decided to do something creative as they opined that their life has become too mundane as a lecturer.[10]

Sukumar and Toleti began their career as writers in Telugu cinema and worked as writers for a few films. After writing three scenes for Jayanth C. Paranjee's Bavagaru Bagunnara? (1998), they were summoned by the college to help them in recruiting students. They walked out of the film on moral grounds.[10] Due to lack of earnings, Sukumar briefly continued to teach students, earned money, and returned back to film industry.[7] He worked as an assistant director for Manasichi Choodu (1998).[11] Sukumar later assisted Editor Mohan for Kshemamga Velli Labhamga Randi (2000) and Hanuman Junction (2001). Before making his directorial debut, Sukumar worked under V. V. Vinayak for Dil (2003) as an assistant director.[9]

Darker themes: 2014–present

Sukumar promoting Rangasthalam 2018.

After completing 100% Love, Sukumar began working on 1: Nenokkadine, a psychological thriller keeping Mahesh Babu in mind as the protagonist as he felt that Mahesh had a universal appeal in terms of looks. The incident of a bus driver talking about a young boy who claims that his parents were murdered in that bus was taken as the story's base.[27] He worked on the film's script for two months,[28] and considered it as his dream project.[29] 1: Nenokkadine was released on 10 January 2014 globally and received mixed reviews from the critics.[30][31] While Suresh Kavirayani of Deccan Chronicle opined that Sukumar "fails to deliver" and the story is "run of the mill",[32] Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu stated, "Habitual to watching films that begin with a great premise only to fall into the commercial trap of force-fit comic situations, it comes as a relief when Sukumar laces the psychological thriller with subtle wit that never takes the focus away from the plot".[33] 1: Nenokkadine collected approximately ₹28.9 crore share worldwide on a budget of ₹60–70 crore, thus becoming a commercial failure.[34] In 2014, he wrote and directed a 2.5 minute short film I Am That Change produced by and starring Allu Arjun.[35] Upon its release, the short film received viral response online and was acclaimed by many including celebrities for its concept and execution.[36]

Following the demise of his father Tirupathi Naidu, Sukumar decided to direct Nannaku Prematho starring N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead roles. Nannaku Prematho, which was Rama Rao Jr.'s 25th film as an actor, dealt with an emotional relationship between a father and his son spanning the last 30 days of the father's life.[37] Released on 13 January 2016, Nannaku Prematho received positive reviews from the critics.[38] Pranita Jonnalagedda of The Times of India stated that the viewers see ups every time when Sukumar "decides to listen to his inner self and gives us some interestingly conceived sequences" and downs come whenever he "gives in to the prerequisite mandates of Telugu cinema".[39] An above average grosser at the domestic box office,[40] Nannaku Prematho became the third highest grossing Telugu film of all time in the overseas market.[41] His 2018 period action film with Ram Charan titled Rangasthalam received positive critical feedback with particular praise for Ram Charan's performance, and Sukumar's direction and screenplay.[42] Rangasthalam ended up as one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of all time.[43]

Post the success of Rangasthalam, Sukumar started working on the period action drama, Pushpa: The Rise (2021), starring Allu Arjun and Rashmika. Budgeted between ₹170–200 crores, it was released as a pan-Indian film and went on to get amazing commercial reception in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil languages to earn more than ₹350 crores by the end of its run.[44] Post the pan-Indian success of Pushpa: The Rise, Sukumar announced that the sequel, Pushpa 2: The Rule, would commence production from summer 2022. In 2020 September, Sukumar announced that he would be collaborating with Vijay Devarakonda after completing the Pushpa duology.

Sukumar met Thabitha Hamsini at the screening of Arya, in the Sudarshan Theatre, RTC X Roads, in Hyderabad.[45] After a courtship of 4 years, they got married in 2009, in the presence of his parents and sister.[7] Thabitha's parents initially opposed their relationship due to Sukumar being a film director, however, they later accepted their alliance.[7] The couple have a daughter and a son, named Sukriti and Sukranth, respectively.[45]

As a writer, Sukumar is influenced by the works of Gudipati Venkatachalam, Yandamuri Veerendranath, and Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, he revealed that each of the romantic scenes in his films are inspired from the writings of either Veerendranath or Sulochana Rani.[7] Sukumar mentioned that Martin Scorsese has had a huge influence on him.[46] He uses non-linear screenplay for most of his films and few sequences of most of his films involve revelation of finest details and re-visiting a scene again and again.[47] His screenplays are mostly complex and multi-layered which earned him the reputation of being an intelligent screenplay writer. In an interview of The Times of India in January 2014, Sukumar said that emotions play a key role in his films, stating that a film "may have multiple subplots, but in the end, it's the emotional curve that connects with the audience".[48] Because of improvising the sequences on the sets and making changes to already filmed portions, his films took long time to complete their production phases.[49]

In most of his films, Sukumar's protagonists are shown to be characterised with grey shades. Y. Sunita Chowdary of The Hindu commented that Sukumar "revels in giving a slight twist to his protagonist, in his background and character" and leaves the audience to understand him as he "unties the knots during narration and justifies his behaviour and makes us root for him".[28] Karthik Keramalu of CNN-IBN, in his review of Kumari 21F, stated that Sukumar's lead characters are "psychologically wired differently", adding that at least one of the characters in his films "behaves in a way that will amuse the audience and the other characters present in the film".[50] Regarding the same, Sukumar said, "We all have a lot of emotions and we suppress most of them fearing rejection. Instead we sport a smile and move on in this world. Problems arise when we don't enjoy all feelings like jealousy, selfishness and don't express them. To achieve something, there must be a driving force and that could be jealousy which you term as negative".[28]

Except for the short film I Am That Change whose music was composed by Sai Karthik,[51] Sukumar chose Devi Sri Prasad to compose the soundtrack and background score for all the films he directed.[52] Sukumar worked with cinematographer R. Rathnavelu for Arya, Jagadam,[53] and 1: Nenokkadine.[54] When Raju asked Sukumar about the budget to be allotted to Arya, Sukumar said that he first wants Rathnavelu on board.[55] In an interview to The Hindu in March 2012, Rathnavelu said, "Sukumar's speciality is he can give you five different ways to solve every problem you encounter. He can get to the crux of the problem and figure out the best possible method to resolve it".[56] Because of their friendship with Sukumar, neither Rathnavelu nor Prasad charged any remuneration for his maiden production venture Kumari 21F.[57] He worked with Venkat R. Prasad, Vijay C Chakravarthy, and Mirosław Kuba Brożek for films 100% Love, Nannaku Prematho, and Pushpa: The Rise respectively.[58][59]

Sukumar Writings or SW is the production company of Sukumar.[60][61][62] Sukumar Writings' first venture was Kumari 21F, which had Devi Sri Prasad as the music composer and R. Rathnavelu as the director of cinematography. Ashok Banreddi and Thomas Reddy joined as co-producers with P.A. Motion pictures. The film was co-produced by Vijaya Prasad Bandreddi and Thomas Reddy.

Sukumar provided the story and screenplay for Kumari 21F, his debut feature film as a co-producer which was directed by his assistant Palnati Surya Pratap. He took inspiration from his college days in Razole where a young woman went to a picnic with some young men; a major undertaking for a woman at the time. Rumours were spread and the woman was labelled as a "loose" character, which stayed in Sukumar's mind.[63] Produced on a budget of ₹6–15 crore,[lower-alpha 1] Kumari 21F grossed ₹38 crore and became the 12th highest grossing Telugu film of the year.[66] Siddharth Rao of The Times of India stated, "In an industry where a damsel-in-distress-wooed-and-saved-by-an-angry-young-man is the norm, this is refreshing. Kudos to the writer Sukumar for giving yet another off-beat story with characters that can't be put into a box".[67]

Sukumar has directed eight feature films so far.

Other roles

• Chinnarayana, Pulagam (18 October 2015). సినిమా వెనుక స్టోరీ: ఫీల్ మై లవ్ [Behind the scenes: Feel my love] (in Telugu). Sakshi Funday. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016.

• Sukumar at IMDb