G. V. Ramana (born ), popularly known by his
nom de plume Jeevi, is a graduate of
BITS Pilani who had short stints in software and finance firms. While he was working in a private firm in
Mumbai, his only connection with Telugu cinema was stray magazines. At that time, for a cinephile like him staying outside
Andhra Pradesh, latest information related to Telugu films was scarce and hard to find and so he decided to launch a website. In December 1999 he launched
Idlebrain.com, a website covering Telugu cinema, with the help of his friend Sunil Krishna who was based in
Sunnyvale,
California. Initially, Sunil hosted the site on his home computer. Jeevi used to contribute to the fledgling site personally while also keeping his dayjob. Armed with a
digital camera, Jeevi used to stop on roads and click at wayside billboards with eye-catching posters and upload them on his site. In the summer of 2001, he resigned from his job and started working on the website fulltime. In about a year, Jeevi started interacting with producers for getting the latest information from official sources. Producers like
Shyam Prasad Reddy,
K. S. Rama Rao, Chalasani Ramesh, and
Sravanthi Ravi Kishore evinced interest regarding the information on the website. Jeevi also started writing reviews of films on the site. As of October 2008, he reviewed over 500 Telugu films and 100 Hindi films. His reviews quickly became popular in the industry and among movie buffs. His review format covers assessment of a film's plot, actors' performance, music, cinematography, and other technical aspects. In October 2008 Jeevi claimed that
Idlebrain had about one
lakh daily visitors, with about 40% of them from the US and 50% from metros in India. == Reception ==