Madhu Mantena
Biography
Madhu Varma Mantena is an Indian film producer and entrepreneur involved in the production and distribution of films across Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali cinema.
Mantena founded a 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.
In 2008, Mantena co-produced Ghajini, which became the highest-grossing Indian film of that year. In 2010, he produced the political thrillers Rakht Charitra and Rann and the Bengali drama Autograph.
In 2011, Mantena co-founded Phantom Films with Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, and Vikramaditya Motwane.
The company produced several films including such as Queen which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi in 2014, Bombay Velvet (2015), Ugly (2015) which was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and the New York Indian Film Festival. The 2016 film Raman Raghav 2.0 was screened at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
In 2019, Super 30 was the last film produced by Phantom Films; the company was subsequently disbanded. In 2022, Mantena and Sheetal Talwar bought the rights to the Phantom brand and revived the company as Phantom Studios.
He is the founder and chief creative officer of the marketing company Big Bang Media Private Limited. In April 2023, it was announced that Big Bang Media Ventures would be the exclusive marketing and commercial partner of the Hockey India League.
