Tollywood choreographers who wore director’s hat

Tollywood is one of the largest film industries in the world when it comes to the number of films produced. A Telugu film can never be complete without music and dance. Can you imagine a film without music and dance? It’s soulless. The choreography is one of the major factors that can make films even more powerful and fun. Some of the choreographers, whom we are going to talk about, are not only responsible for dance moves, but also make films with such a big passion. Here’re some of the Tollywood choreographers who wore director’s hat and turned filmmakers.

Indian Michael Jackson Prabhudheva has many films to his credit as a choreographer. From ‘Gallu Mandhi Basu’ in the 1993 film, ‘Rakshana’ to ‘Mattiloni Chett’ in the 2012 film ‘Dhoni’ are proof that his choreography has always made his audience whistle in delight. Not many know that Prabhudheva first appeared on onscreen as a boy playing the flute in the song ‘Panivizhum Iravu’ from the film ‘Mouna Ragam’ in 1986. He appeared as a background dancer in the 1988 film ‘Agni Natchathiram’. He made his directorial debut with the 2005 Telugu film ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’, which was a blockbuster hit at the box-office and he went on to direct films such as ‘Pournami’ and ‘Shankardada Zindabad’.

Raghava Lawrence has been in the industry for more than two decades now, and he has been nailing it at choreography as well as direction. He first choreographed the song ‘Nadaka Kalisina Navaraatri’ from the 1997 film ‘Hitler’, starring megastar Chiranjeevi in the lead. The song-and-dance sequence was a super hit and he went to win many hearts with unique style of choreography for the songs such as ‘Ee Pettakku’ from ‘Mutha Mestri’ ‘Lovvuki Age’ from ‘Kshemamga Velli Labhamga Randi’, ‘Krishna Zilla’ from ‘Ninne Istapaddanu’, ‘Kuch Kuch’ from ‘Satyam’ and to name a few. The choreographer wore the director’s hat and had directed films like ‘Mass’, ‘Style’, ‘Muni’, ‘Muni 2’, ‘Rebel’ and ‘Muni 3’.

Amma Rajasekhar is one of the popular dance masters and a director in Tollywood. He is best known for his choreography in films like ‘Sevakudu’, ‘Real Star’ and ‘Amma Nanna Oorelithe’. His directorial debut was ‘Ranam’, starring Gopichand and Kamna Jethmalani in the lead roles. The movie was a blockbuster hit and he later helmed a film with Ravi Teja, ‘Khatarnack’ (2006), with Nithiin ‘Takkari’ in 2007, ‘Bheebatsam’ in 2009 and ‘Ranam 2’ in 2015. As a token of love to his mother for her support, he has reportedly added the prefix ‘Amma’ to his name and since then he is popularly known as ‘Amma’ Rajasekhar.

One of the younger brothers of Prabhudheva, Raju Sundaram is regarded as one of the most prominent choreographers in the South Indian film industry. We can see his choreography works in more than 500 films. Some of his well-known works in films such as ‘Criminal’, ‘Bharateeyudu’, ‘Prema Desam’, ‘Mr Romeo’, ‘Jeans’, ‘Daddy’, ‘Indra’, ‘Boy’ and many more. He made his directorial debut with 2008 Tamil film ‘Aegan’, starring Ajith Kumar, Nayanthara, Navdeep, Piaa Bajpai and Suman. He is also an actor who has made his presence felt in films such as ‘Jeans’, ‘I Love You Ra’, ‘123’, ‘Pellaina Kothalo’ and ‘Action 3D’.

It is a known fact that Ganesh Acharya is a famous Bollywood choreographer. But not many know that he has choreographed some dance numbers in Telugu which includes in movies like ‘Duvvada Jagannadham’ (2017), ‘Iddarammayilatho’ (2013) and ‘Hands Up’ (2000). He choreographed many big films in B-town and made a name for himself in the industry as a powerful dance master. He is also a director who has made several films in Hindi such as ‘Swami’ (2007), ‘Money Hai Toh Honey Hai’ (2008), ‘Angel’ (2011) and ‘Bhikari’ (2017).