Madhu Mantena


Madhu Varma Mantena is an Indian film producer and entrepreneur involved in the production and distribution of films across Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali cinema. In 2008, Madhu Mantena co-produced Ghajini which was the highest grossing Indian film for that year. Since then Madhu has produced films such as the trilingual sleeper-hit Rakht Charitra, the political thriller Rann screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Bengali hit Autograph.
Madhu co-founded Phantom Films with Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl and Vikramaditya Motwane, which went on to deliver works such as Lootera, Queen which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi for that year, Hasee Toh Phasee, and the Neo-Noir films, Bombay Velvet, Ugly screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Indian Film Festival, and Masaan screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival winning two awards, and the National Film Award. The 2016 film Raman Raghav 2.0 was screened at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
Madhu Mantena co-founded an advertising production company, Offroad Films which produces ad films. He made it into the Limca Book of Records for theatrically releasing seven films, produced by him, within a time span of 50 days. This is the maximum number of release in different languages by one producer in the shortest time. Four of the films were released within a short span of eight days. He also ran Ram Gopal Varma's production house Factory. His film for 2019 is Super 30

Non film work

Madhu Mantena began his career by creating his own music label as a teenager which he then sold to Supreme Recording Company. He then went on to set up Adlabs’ International Operations under the aegis of Manmohan Shetty and was head of Saregama Films. Currently, Madhu Mantena has built a media entity with various companies operating across the entertainment and media value chain, each specializing in one of the fields of talent management, content development, content production, content distribution and monetization.
He Co-founded KWAN, a celebrity management company, with Anirban Das Blah. In 2012 KWAN announced a joint venture along-with Creative Artist Agency to form a new entity, CAA KWAN. This talent management agency presently commands a variety of business interests and manages a repertoire of Indian talent as well as international talent.

Personal life

Mantena was married to fashion designer Masaba Gupta, the daughter of Bollywood actress Neena Gupta and Sir Viv Richards. In 2015 the couple married in a civil ceremony. In late 2018 the couple announced they were on a trial separation. In March 2019 they officially divorced. However, they remain good friends. Mantena was previously in a relationship with actress, Nandana Sen, prior to marrying Gupta.

Filmography

As Producer

As Producer - [Phantom Films]

Awards