Neelakanta (director)
G. Neelakanta Reddy, mononymously credited as Neelakanta is a Telugu film director and screenwriter. He has received the National Award in the screen writing for the feature Show.
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 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 and Venu in lead roles, and later made a psychological thriller, Nandanavanam 120km. Both these films did not do well at the box office. Despite of 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
| Year | Film | Role | Language | Notes |
| 1994 | Priyanka | Direction | Tamil | Remake of Hindi film Damini – Lightning |
| 2002 | Show | Screenplay, direction | Telugu | Received two National Film Awards |
| 2003 | Missamma | Screenplay, direction | Telugu | Received Four Nandi Awards |
| 2005 | Sadaa Mee Sevalo | Screenplay, direction | Telugu | |
| 2006 | Nandanavanam 120km | Screenplay, direction, | Telugu | |
| 2008 | Mr. Medhavi | Direction | Telugu | |
| 2009 | Eeenadu | Dialogues | Telugu | |
| 2011 | Virodhi | Screenplay, direction | Telugu | Screened at International Film Festival of India – 2011 Received Two Nandi Awards 2011 Screened at Melbourne International Film Festival-2011 |
| 2013 | Chammak Challo | Direction | Telugu | - |
| 2014 | Maaya | Screenplay, direction | Telugu | |
| 2018 | Zam Zam | Direction | Malayalam | Remake of Hindi film Queen |
Awards
;National Film Awards- National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu – 2002 – Show
- National Film Award for Best Screenplay – 2002 – Show
- Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer – Show
- Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer – Missamma
- Nandi Award for Best Dialogue Writer – Virodhi