Hemanth M. Rao is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works inKannada cinema. He rose to fame following the success of his directorial debutGodhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2016).^[2]

After a brief stint in journalism, Rao ventured into the film industry in 2005.^[2] He began as an assistant director with Girish Kasaravalli on the 2008 film Gulabi Talkies. He then worked in similar capacities with Jacob Varghese on Savaari and Prithvi.^[3] He worked as an assistant director withGirish Kasaravalli in the latter's 2008 filmGulabi Talkies, before working with Jacob Varghese inSavaari (2009) andPrithvi (2010).^[4]

He made his directorial debut in 2016 withGodhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu, a Kannada drama feature about a man searching for his missing father with Alzheimer’s, with a script that he co-wrote. that hadRakshit Shetty andAnant Nag playing the respective roles. The film, produced byPushkar Films, was a box office success and received critical acclaim upon release.^[2]

Under his banner Lost & Found Films, he co-producedHumble Politician Nograj—a political satire comedy inspired byThe Campaign.^[5] The film was produced by Pushkar Films andParamvah Studios and was released in January 2018.

Rao’s next writing venture wasAndhadhun (2018), which was also his first venture intoHindi cinema. He co-wrote the script withSriram Raghavan, Pooja Ladha Surti (who was also the editor of the film), Arijit Biswas, and Yogesh Chandekarand. The film also garnered tremendous praise and popularity, while also quickly garnering a cult following. They all collectively won aFilmfare Award andNational Film Award for their screenplay.^[6]

His second directorial wasKavaludaari (2019), which was also the maiden production venture ofPuneeth Rajkumar under production house,PRK Productions.^[7]Kavaludaari won Best Movie in "Kannada Cinema Competition" at12th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2020^[8]

Rao continued to work in the thriller space withMaestro, which released in 2021. His next directorial,Sapta Sagaradaache Ello, is a romantic drama which he wrote a long time back. Owing to the expansive timeline of the screenplay, it was split into two parts:Side A andSide B.Side A released on 1 September 2023 to critical acclaim from both the critics and audience, alike.Side B was released on 17 November 2023.

• Hemanth M. Rao atIMDb

• Living people
• Kannada film directors
• Kannada screenwriters
• Film directors from Bengaluru
• Screenwriters from Bengaluru
• Best Adapted Screenplay National Film Award winners
• 21st-century Indian people
• 1983 births

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2018
• Use Indian English from August 2018
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