Kharthik Phalani

Karthik Palani is an Indian cinematographer who works in Telugu cinema. After debuting with Love Shagun, Palani has since worked in Next Nuvve (2017), Penguin (2020) and Adipurush (2023).

Career Karthik worked as an assistant to Tirru during Mercury (2018) and Petta (2019). He also worked as an assistant cinematographer in several Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil-language films. He garnered acclaim for his work in Penguin (2020). A critic from The Times of India noted that "Karthik Phalani's visuals help set the eerie mood" whilst a critic from The Hindu stated how "The filmmaker, however, revelation in terms of his visual sense. Two shots come to mind that are beautifully imagined and shot". His next film was the Kannada film French Biriyani (2020). A critic noted that "Cinematographer Karthik Palani has created the right atmosphere and has employed quirky camera moves to keep us in tune with the film's proceedings".

In 2020, Karthik started working on Adipurush, directed by Om Raut. It was based on the Hindu epic Ramayana. The filming involved combining motion capture technology with live action similar to the methods used on The Jungle Book (2016) and Planet of the Apes (2011).

Karthik is collaborating with Maruthi again after Brand Babu (2018) for The RajaSaab (2026), starring Prabhas in his second collaboration with him following their work on Adipurush.

Filmography Year Title Language Notes 2016 Love Shagun Hindi 2017 Next Nuvve Telugu 2018 Zeenat Hindi Brand Babu Telugu 2020 Penguin Tamil 2023 Varisu Tamil Adipurush HindiTelugu 2026The RajaSaabTelugu