Mohan Krishna Indraganti

Mohana Krishna Indraganti is an Indian director known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. His debut directorial venture Grahanam fetched him eleven awards including the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director, the Nandi Award for Best First Film of a Director and the Gollapudi Srinivas Award for Best First Film of a Director. The film was also showcased in the Indian panorama section of the 2005 International Film Festival of India. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from York University.

Early life Indraganti Mohana Krishna was born into a Telugu Brahmin family in Tanuku, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India. As his parents, Indraganti Srikanth Sharma and Janaki Bala, and grandparents were writers, he had a fascination towards fiction since his childhood. His grandmother's stories were visually detailed in their narration. In addition to this, he has been an avid reader of literary works and also loved to discuss films with his uncle. In an interview, he said that these were the key reasons that contributed to his interest in filmmaking.

His upbringing was in Vijayawada where he completed his schooling and obtained his bachelor's degree in arts from Loyola College. Thereafter, he pursued his interest in Arts by obtaining a master's degree in English language and Philosophy from University of Hyderabad. He applied to enroll in one of the courses at the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India; however, his application was rejected. In the meanwhile, he was the writer and associate director for Mahandhra, a socio-cultural, economic and political study of the erstwhile state of Andhra. This study, made in a documentary-drama format for Doordarshan, was performed in commemoration of India's 50th year of independence. He sent creative samples from this study to Toronto-based York University and its prestigious Department of Film in the Faculty of Fine Arts. This helped him join and complete Master of Fine Arts in Film between 1998 and 2000. Even though he registered to continue for his Doctoral degree in Communication and Culture, he discontinued it after a year and returned to Hyderabad in 2001.

Foray into films

Earlier into films he want to make a short film because to know how much he was ready to make a film. Then he made a horror short film called 'Chali' with the minimum resources he had and with the help of his elder sister (In those days it was tough to make a short film mainly unknown to people). It was praised by writer, actor Tanikella Bharani later who became his mentor in films recommended to director Ram Gopal Varma as an Associate to him after watching his short film Varma instead of offering an Associate he offered to direct his film called 'Madhyanam Hathya'. Later at the finishing stage they both got creative differences and he left the film later Varma remade the film again under his direction.

Later he made his first feature film Grahanam though it was first drafted in 1997, his amateurish skills in constructing the screenplay didn't help much at that time. This draft was based on Doshagunam, a short story written by Gudipati Venkatachalam (popularly known as Chalam), a controversial yesteryear Telugu writer and philosopher. Since screenplay writing was his specialisation in his Master of Fine Arts course at York University, he reworked the script by the time he returned to Hyderabad. His debut film fetched him 11 awards with the prominent ones being the National Film Award, Nandi Award bestowed by Government of Andhra Pradesh and Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Award.

Filmography Year Film Notes 2004 Grahanam International Film Festival of India 2006 Mayabazar 2008 Ashta ChammaBased on Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" 2011 Golconda High School 2013 Anthaka Mundu Aa Tarvatha 2014 Bandipotu 2016 Gentleman 2017 Ami Thumi 2018 Sammohanam 2020 V 2022 Aa Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali 2025Sarangapani Jathakam Based on Oscar Wilde's "Lord Arthur Saville's Murder"

As a voice actor Mithunam (2012)

Frequent collaborators Collaborator P. G. Vinda Marthand K. Venkatesh Kalyani Malik Vivek Sagar Tanikella Bharani Srinivas Avasarala (as dialogue writer) Nani Sudheer Babu Eesha Rebba Vennela Kishore Naresh Rohini Rahul Ramakrishna Jhansi Goparaju Ramana Madhumani

Discography

Awards National Film Award Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director – Grahanam (2005)

Nandi Awards Nandi Award for Best First Film of a Director – Grahanam – 2005 Nandi Award for Best Story Writer – Anthaka Mundu Aa Tarvatha – 2013 Other Awards Gollapudi Srinivas Award – for Best First Film of a Director – 2005 – Grahanam – 2005 Akkineni Award for Best Home-viewing Feature Film (director) – Ashta Chamma – 2008