Personal info
Known for
Director
Gender
Male
Date of Birth
1962-04-07
Location
Andhra Pradesh, India
Edit pageRam Gopal Varma
Biography
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television. Varma has directed films across multiple genres, including parallel cinema and docudrama noted for their gritty realism, technical finesse, and craft.
Regarded as one of the pioneers of new-age Indian cinema, he was featured in the BBC World series Bollywood Bosses in 2004. In 2006, Grady Hendrix of Film Comment, published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center cited Varma as "Bombay's Most Successful Maverick" for his works on experimental films.
Starting his career as a civil engineer, he made an entry into Telugu cinema with the path-breaking crime thriller, Siva (1989) featured at the 13th IFFI' 90 Indian Panorama mainstream section, and has won Varma, the state Nandi Awards for Best Direction, Best first film of a director, and the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu. Subsequently, the film was included in CNN-IBN's list of 100 greatest Indian films of all time.
Varma's next directorial was Kshana Kshanam (1991), the neo-noir heist film featured at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, which won him another Nandi Award for Best Direction, and the Nandi Award for Best Screenplay Writer. The 1993 political drama, Gaayam received six state Nandi Awards. In 1999, he directed Prema Katha for which he received his third Nandi Award for Best Director.
