Neelakanta is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works predominantly in Telugu films director. He has received the National Award in the screenwriting for the feature Show. He won two National Film Awards and three Nandi Awards.
Personal life Neelakanta is a native of Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh. He studied at Loyola Public School and Loyola College in Vijayawada. Since his school days, Neelakanta has had a deep love for film direction and film making which is what drove him to Chennai after his graduation.
Career Neelakanta worked as an assistant to Vallabhaneni Janardhan for Thodu Needa (1983) and Amayaka Chakravarthy (1983), both of which were remakes and flops. He made his debut as a producer for Jamadagni (1988) since he was a fan of Bharathiraja. He then worked on Priyanka (1994), the Tamil remake of Damini (1993). He then took a hiatus as all of the offers that he was receiving were for remakes and he wanted to make something original. He always wanted to make films which eloquently depicted the psychological study of characters for the off-beat his passion materialised with Show followed by Missamma. He received two national awards, one for Best Screenplay and the other for the Best Feature Film in Telugu for Show while state Nandi Award in the screenplay department for the latter.
He then made Sada Mee Sevalo, with Shriya Saran and Venu Thottempudi in lead roles, and later made a psychological thriller, Nandanavanam 120km. Both these films did not do well at the box office. Despite its commercial failure, Nanadanavanam got him huge critical acclaim. These were followed by Mr.Medhavi. with Genelia and Raja in the lead roles. This film, produced by RamaRao Bodduluri, proved to be an above-average grosser. He also wrote dialogues for a Telugu remake of the Hindi hit A Wednesday!, entitled Eeenadu. In 2011, Neelakanta directed Virodhi, featuring Meka Srikanth and Kamalinee Mukherjee. Neelakanta secured the best dialogue writer award in the year 2011 for this film. In 2013 he directed Chammak Challo, which gathered bad reviews for both the director and the film.
In 2018, he directed the Malayalam film Zam Zam starring Manjima Mohan. The film is an official remake of the Hindi film Queen.
Filmography Note: All films are in Telugu, unless otherwise noted. Year Film Director Writer Producer Language Notes 1988 Jamadagni Telugu 1994 Priyanka Tamil 2002 Show Telugu Winner - two National Film Awards 2003 Missamma Winner - Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer 2005 Sadaa Mee Sevalo 2006 Nandanavanam 120km 2008 Mr. Medhavi 2009 Eenadu 2011 Virodhi Screened at International Film Festival of India – 2011Winner - Two Nandi Awards 2011Screened at Melbourne International Film Festival-2011 2013 Chammak Challo 2014 Maaya 2023 Circle Zam Zam Malayalam
Awards National Film Awards National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu – 2002 – Show National Film Award for Best Screenplay – 2002 – Show
Nandi Awards Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer – Show (2001) Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer – Missamma (2003) Nandi Award for Best Dialogue Writer – Virodhi (2011)
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