Sukumar

Sukumar was born on 11 January 1971, 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. He later worked as a mathematics and physics lecturer in Aditya Junior college, Kakinada. After nearly seven years, Sukumar and his junior Prakash Toleti decided to do something creative as they opined that their life has become too mundane as a lecturer. == Career ==

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 Bavagaru Bagunnara? (1998), they were summoned by the college to help them in recruiting students. They walked out of the film on moral grounds. 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.The success of Arya catapulted Sukumar into stardom overnight. and the Best Screenplay Writer award at the annual Nandi Awards ceremony. Sukumar then began working on the script of Jagadam (2007), a crime film starring Ram Pothineni and Isha Sahni. Unlike Arya, Jagadam focused more on violence and in an interview with South Scope, Sukumar called the film an "act of bravado", adding that he "made it with an innocent passion", without thinking about the audience's response. whereas Rediff called it a "good effort". Following the mixed reviews, Jagadam was a box office failure, although, over the years, it has gained a major cult following. He then wrote and directed Arya 2 (2009), which was promoted as the namesake sequel to his debut Arya. It featured Allu Arjun, Kajal Aggarwal, and Navdeep in the lead roles and narrated the story of Arya, a psychotic orphan whose love for his childhood friend, Ajay, and his colleague, Geetha, is never reciprocated. The film received mixed reviews from critics. However, Arya 2 became one of the few successful Telugu films of the year, and was praised for its stylistic quotient and music. but lost it to S. S. Rajamouli for Magadheera. Rajamouli stated that he regards Sukumar as the best of the lot after watching Arya 2, which according to Sukumar "was the most precious and sweetest thing I have heard about myself". 100% Love was commercially successful, collecting a share of ₹18.11 crore and received the Best Home-viewing Feature Film award at the annual Nandi Awards ceremony. Sukumar earned another nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Telugu at the 59th Filmfare Awards South, and a nomination for the Best Director – Telugu at the 1st South Indian International Movie Awards. Darker themes: 2014–present '' 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. He worked on the film's script for two months, and considered it as his dream project. 1: Nenokkadine was released on 10 January 2014 globally and received mixed reviews from the critics. While Suresh Kavirayani of Deccan Chronicle opined that Sukumar "fails to deliver" and the story is "run of the mill", 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". Following the mixed reviews, 1: Nenokkadine collected approximately 28.9 crore share worldwide on a budget of 6070 crore, thus becoming a commercial failure. Over the years, 1: Nenokkadine became a major cult film. In 2014, he wrote and directed a 3-minute short film I Am That Change produced by and starring Allu Arjun. Upon its release, the short film received viral response online and was acclaimed by many including celebrities for its concept and execution. 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. Released on 13 January 2016, Nannaku Prematho received positive reviews from the critics. 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". An above average grosser at the domestic box office, Nannaku Prematho became the third highest grossing Telugu film of all time in the overseas market. His 2018 period action film with Ram Charan titled Rangasthalam received positive reviews with particular praise for Ram Charan's performance, and Sukumar's direction and screenplay. Rangasthalam ended up as one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of all time. Post the success of Rangasthalam, Sukumar started working on the period action drama, Pushpa: The Rise (2021), starring Allu Arjun and Rashmika. Budgeted between 170200 crores, it was released as a pan-Indian film and although it received mixed reviews from critics, the film was well received by the audiences and went on to get amazing commercial reception in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil languages earning a total gross of 373 crores by the end of its theatrical run. Post the success of Pushpa: The Rise, Sukumar announced that the sequel, Pushpa 2: The Rule, is in development and production commenced in 2022. The film released on 5 December 2024 and was met with critical acclaim. == Personal life ==

Sukumar met Thabitha Hamsini at the screening of Arya, in the Sudarshan Theatre, RTC X Roads, in Hyderabad. After a courtship of 4 years, they got married in 2009, in the presence of his parents and sister. == Filmmaking style==

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. 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. 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". 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. 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". 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". Sukumar chose Devi Sri Prasad to compose the soundtrack and background score for all the films he directed. Sukumar worked with cinematographer R. Rathnavelu for Arya, Jagadam, 1: Nenokkadine, and Rangasthalam. When Dil Raju asked Sukumar about the budget to be allotted to Arya, Sukumar said that he first wanted R. Rathnavelu on board as the cinematographer. 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". Because of their friendship with Sukumar, neither Rathnavelu nor Prasad charged any remuneration for his maiden production venture Kumari 21F. Frequent collaborators ==Film production==

Sukumar established Sukumar Writings in 2014 for presenting and producing films. Sukumar Writings' first venture was Kumari 21F, which had Sukumar's norm technicians of Devi Sri Prasad composing music and R. Rathnavelu as the director of cinematography. Ashok Banreddi and Thomas Reddy joined as co-producers with P. A. Motion Pictures; it 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. Produced on a budget of 69 crore, Kumari 21F grossed 38 crore and became the 12th highest grossing Telugu film of the year. 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". == Filmography ==