Sekhar Kammula – Master at Introducing Talent in Telugu Cinema

Sekhar Kammula brought lives of middle-class with all the fun, challenges, and quirks into cinema and introduced a bunch of amazing actors

Happy Days is all Set to Rerelease in Theatres on April 19

Sekhar Kammula has brought the lives of middle-class youth with all the fun, challenges, and quirks into cinema in the most relatable manner. This is the reason even though Sekhar Kammula’s filmography is limited – each of his films has left a mark in people’s hearts.

Sekhar KammulaBe it his first big hit ‘Anand’, his debut that was critically acclaimed ‘Dollar Dreams’, ‘Avakai Biryani’, which had its fair run at the box office, ‘Godavari’ that never stops charming the audience, ‘Life is Beautiful’ that brings in the class divide in the most endearing way, ‘Leader’ that brought out the actor in Rana Daggubati and his love stories – ‘Fidaa’ with Varun Tej and Sai Pallavi and the most recent ‘Love Story’ with Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi in the lead.

And, how can we not mention the all-time favorite ‘Happy Days’ that had changed the course of many youngsters who were smitten by the engineering college students who were hand-picked to play the characters by Sekhar himself. In fact, it is one of the foremost exercises done with due diligence by Sekhar Kammula who is legendary for his slow pace of filmmaking.

Currently, his much-awaited project Kubera that he co-wrote with his longtime associate Chaitanya Pingali is in the pre-production stage. It has Dhanush – no less – as the lead and the rest of the cast includes the likes of Akkineni Nagarjuna and Rashmika Mandana.

Well, it has not always been this way that Sekhar worked with established stars for lead actors. In fact, his films have launched many actors – who are doing quite well for themselves. It is not just the lead actors; his actors in supporting roles and even those who have acted in a scene or two – who come and go and hardly warrant a glimpse are now lead actors with hit films.

It is definitely interesting to revisit some of the films like Life is Beautiful and Happy Days that had names like Vijay Devarakonda, Naveen Polishetty, and Tamanna Bhatia – who went on to become a phenomenon of their own.

Rana Daggubati – When producer Suresh Babu’s son and grandson of the doyen Ramanaidu wanted to act – he chose to debut through a political film ‘Leader’ directed by Sekhar Kammula. An unusual debut that went on to become one of his biggest hits. The film also introduced Priya Anand and Richa as female leads.

Kamalini Mukherjee – Talking of female leads, one of Sekhar Kammula’s biggest finds is the Bengali model and actress Kamalini Mukherjee. He cast her in his all-time hit ‘Godavari’ with Sumanth Akkineni as the main lead. Sekhar’s female characters are always strong and for Kamalini, it was a dream debut.

Vijay Devarakonda – Acts as one of the friends of the antagonist (Naveen Polishetty) in Life is Beautiful – one of the A-block rich kids’ gang who also gets to throw a tantrum and two and has a bunch of dialogues to say. He is in many scenes – but you just get a glimpse as the role warrants. Later on, post a few other films, he acted in Pelli Choopulu and there is no looking back for this hero, whose Arjun Reddy is a cult. Naveen Polishetty – The entitled A Block brat (in Life is Beautiful) who is out to get the B block urchins and is enraged when his sister decides to marry a boy from the gang he looks down upon. He is the main villain and so he gets the limelight even though post the film it took a bit of a struggle to finally prove his mettle. With films like Jathi Rathnalu and Miss Shetty Mr. Polishetty, he rose to the top.

Sree Vishnu – One of the most dependable actors of late – Sree Vishnu has garnered the reputation of choosing his films wisely and in most cases, his films have worked well with the audience – the recent one being ‘Om Bheem Bush’. He is seen in ‘Life is Beautiful’ as the B Block kid who falls in love with A Block girl – Naveen Polishetty’s sister. The girl is Sreemukhi who went on to become one of the top anchors and continues to act in films.

Esha Rebba – If you are wondering in which of Sekhar Kammula’s films has this actress been in – well, it’s Life is Beautiful again – she is the house help in the hero’s aunt’s house – where the siblings come to stay after their mother goes off for treatment. If you missed her – then you can check again.

Tamanna Bhatia – There couldn’t have been a better launch for Tamanna – Happy Days was like a shot in the arm and from since then there is no looking back for the actress who reigned the Telugu industry before shifting gears in Bollywood and now OTT.

Varun Sandesh – Happy Days was the first film for Varun Sandesh – the American boy who spoke typical Telugu. Post this big hit he got a bunch of good youthful films and mentionable hits including ‘Kotha Bangarulokam’. He was on Bigg Boss Telugu and since then trying to make a comeback into films.

Nikhil Siddhartha – He was already acting in minor roles before bagging Happy Days. Then some more films followed. He strived with every film, enjoyed hits like Kartikeya and now he is in the 100-crore club with Pan-India films in his kitty.

Sai Pallavi – The Malayalam actress, who stole hearts through her film Premam was given a break in Telugu with Fidaa – and the success that she saw with this love story as a Telangana pilla continues to this day.

The list goes on including supporting actors like Krishnudu, lead actors like Kamal Kamaraju & Bindu Madhavi – Both of them have a bunch of critically acclaimed and hit films to talk about and they were the lead in Avakai Biryani – a film produced by Sekhar Kammula and directed by Anish Kuruvilla. He also has to his credit introducing character artists who are new to the industry. Do you know anyone else that Sekhar Kammula introduced who made it big in the Telugu industry? Please do comment to let us know.