Watch | Prasanth Varma: I sought Rajamouli’s advice for ‘Hanu-Man’ | Director’s Take 

Director Prasanth Varma of ‘Awe’ and ‘Zombie Reddy’ opens up on his superhero film ‘Hanu-Man’ and the ease with which he shifts between genres

Hanu-Man, the first film from director Prasanth Varma’s superhero series, will be released soon. The Telugu film will also be dubbed in multiple languages. Prasanth debuted with the multi-genre Telugu film Awe in 2018, which won the National Film Awards for best visual effects and make-up. Those who follow Telugu cinema would be aware of his short films that got him noticed by stars such as Ravi Teja, Sundeep Kishan and Kajal Aggarwal and yet, Prasanth had his doubts when stars offered to produce his first feature film. He wondered if he would be asked to tailor the script to suit a star’s image. He was convinced when stylist Prasanthi Tipirneni and actor Nani reposed faith that his script will stay intact and produced it under Wall Poster Cinema. At his Hyderabad office, Prasanth reflects on his journey from ad films to feature films, his interest in mythological stories and his training in technical aspects that contributed to his directorial skills. 

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Just before your first film, Awe, you stated that director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao is your inspiration to explore different genres. In your short career so far, you have tried to explore diverse genres — Awe was a genre bender, Kalki was a crime thriller, Zombie Reddyhad zombies in Rayalaseema and Hanu-Man is a superhero story. 

I get bored quickly. For example, I used to play a lot of sports in my childhood. After 12 years I began focusing on cricket and then badminton. I will soon be playing tennis. We have one life and I want to explore different things. In cinema, once I finish working on a genre, I find it boring to do another film in a similar zone. 

When I began working on Zombie Reddy, I didn’t know how to make a zombie film. I started figuring out the makeup and how to shoot horror. To immediately work on part two would have been boring. So I moved on to the superhero film, Hanu-Man. I hope to keep surprising viewers with new genres.

Hanu-Man is being projected as a pan-world film. Is that term being used since it has wide-release plans?

The initial idea was to make a Telugu film. Once we unveiled the title and the first poster, people from Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil industries showed interest. Since Hanuman is a universal deity, we thought why not make it a bigger film. Then distributors suggested we also release it in Hindi. I was not too ambitious. But producer Niranjan Reddy sensed the potential and was eager to scale it up. People from China, Japan, Korea and other countries have also approached the producer. It is almost like how Hanuman, who does not know his strength, keeps growing bigger and bigger. We plan to release the film in 11 languages, including Marathi.