Vishnu Manchu

Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu (born 23 November 1981)^[2][3] is an Indian actor and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema and television. Manchu had a brief stint as a child artist with the 1985 film Ragile Gundelu. Years later, he starred in the 2003 Telugu action film Vishnu, for which he won the Filmfare Best Male Debut.

Vishnu Manchu
Vishnu at 'Manchu Town' in Hyderabad
Born	Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu^[1] (1981-11-23) 23 November 1981 (age 42) Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupations	Actor producer educationist businessman
Years active	2003–present
Spouse	Viranica Reddy ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	4
Parent	Mohan Babu (father)
Relatives	Lakshmi Manchu (sister) Manchu Manoj (brother)
Website	www.vishnumanchu.com

He is the co-owner of the film production house 24 Frames Factory and is an educationalist through Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust, founded by his father and veteran Telugu actor Mohan Babu.^[4] He is a founder and chairman of New York Academy, a school in Hyderabad for which his wife, Viranica, is the director and his father Mohan Babu, is the chair person.^[5] He is also the chairman of Spring Board Academy^[6] and Spring Board International Preschools^[7] which has more than 75 branches^[8] spread across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Vishnu Manchu is the pro-chancellor for the prestigious Mohan Babu University in Tirupati established in 2022 by his legendary father Dr. M. Mohan Babu.^[9]

In 2007, he starred in the comedy film Dhee, which became a hit, and Manchu established his career in Telugu cinema. Manchu is one of the sponsors of the Celebrity Cricket League Telugu Warriors.^[10][11][12] Vishnu had been recently elected as the president of Movie Artists Association.

Early life

Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India (present-day Chennai) to actor Mohan Babu and mother, Vidya Devi.^[13] He grew up with his brother Manoj and sister Lakshmi.^[14][15]

After completing schooling from the Padmaseshadri Bala Bhavan School, Manchu went on to take an engineering degree from Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College, majoring in Computer Sciences and Information Technology. During that time, he represented the Bhaskar JNTU cricket team, and also captained the university basketball team.^[16]

Career

1985; 2003–2006: Early work

Manchu made his acting debut as a child artist in his father Mohan Babu's 1985 film Ragile Gundelu.^{[citation needed]}

He landed his first lead role in the film Vishnu (2003) directed by Shaji Kailas, for which he won the Filmfare Best Male Debut. He played a guy who wants to win his childhood love with his own merits against many hurdles. The following year, he was seen in the film Suryam (2004) in which he played a guy who aims to fulfill the last wish of his mother. Manchu made a cameo appearance as a dancer in Political Rowdy (2005), a romantic action drama.

He next appeared in the action-drama Astram (2006), as an IPS officer who has been appointed to finish off the ultras. Soon after, Manchu was cast in Game (2006), as Vijay Raj, sharing screen space with his celebrity father Mohan Babu and yesteryear heroine Shobana.

He finally got his critical breakthrough with the movie Dhee, alongside Genelia D'Souza. Released in 2007, Dhee became his first commercially successful film. It was remade in Tamil as Mirattal, in Bengali as Khokababu and in Oriya as Tu mo girlfriend. Manchu plunged into the limelight with this role.

2008–present: Career fluctuations

He then appeared in the 2008 film Krishnarjuna, the 2009 film Saleem and the 2011 film Vastadu Naa Raju.^[17] In 2012, comedy film Dhenikaina Ready got him critical success; the film grossed 200 million at the box office. He then appeared in Doosukeltha, directed by Veeru Potla, he starred opposite Lavanya Tripathi, the film grossed 126.3 million on its first week at the box office.^[18][19] He then appeared along with his father, in the critically acclaimed crime film Rowdy, written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film minted a worldwide share of ₹33 crore (US$4.1 million) at the end of the second week of its run, and was declared a box office hit.^[20][21][22]

Manchu starred in G. Nageswara Reddy's Denikaina Ready, which became a hit and succeeded in changing his image. The next year, he had an opportunity to exhibit his versatility as an actor in the titular role of Veeru Potla's rom-com, Doosukeltha. The movie not only established Manchu as an actor, but also grossed more than 15 crore at the box office. His next project fared much better, when he played the Gambler Gopi in the ensemble comedy Pandavulu Pandavulu Tummeda (2014), which featured an ensemble cast of Manchu Manoj, Mohan Babu, Raveena Tandon, Hansika Motwani, Pranitha Subhash, and Varun Sandesh.

Manchu then played the role Krishna in Rowdy (2014) alongside his father Mohan Babu. Showing his range as an actor, Manchu later portrayed DCP Goutham in the commercially unsuccessful but critically adored film Anukshanam (2014), helmed by Ram Gopal Varma. He continued as a dramatic actor in the 2014 Erra Bus, produced and directed by Dasari Narayana Rao. He then appeared in the action thriller Dynamite, directed by Deva Katta. Though they made an interesting movie along the way, they paid for it at the box office. Manchu further proved his comedic talents with the romantic comedy entertainer Eedo Rakam Aado Rakam (2015), in which he co-starred with Raj Tarun. The same year, he completed filming for Saradaa but the film remains unreleased. In 2017, he starred in Luckunnodu, which performed poorly at the box office. By the end of 2017, he had already appeared in 20 films.

His film in 2018 include the crime drama Gayatri, in which Shriya Saran and his father Mohan Babu play other important characters and the comedy film Achari America Yatra; and the political thriller Voter 2019. His next film, Mosagallu (2021), is a crossover film directed by American filmmaker Jeffrey Gee Chin based on the world's biggest IT Scam, filmed in India and USA.^[23][24] It features Kajal Aggarwal, Suniel Shetty, Navdeep, Naveen Chandra and Ruhi Singh apart from Manchu.^[23][25] It was released in March 2021 and collected a gross of 38 crores in the long run and stands as a average runner at box office.^{[26] [27]}

In October 2021, he contested and won the elections of Movie Artists Association (MAA) as its president against Prakash Raj.^[28][29] Vishnu made the announcement about his next project titled 'Ginna' is being produced by Ava Entertainment and 24 Frames Factory which was initially planned to release in August but later released in October 2022 due to production delays.The film which was made on a budget of 20-25 crores managed to collect only 9.05 crores at the box office as a average runner.^[30][31]

Vishnu announced his dream poject Kannappa on 18 August 2023, with the pooja cermoney at Srikalahasti temple in Andhra Pradesh.^[32] Where has Vishnu and his father Mohan Babu to co-produce the Kannappa film with an impressive 100 crore budget and shooting will begin from September 2023.^[33]

Personal life

In 2009, Manchu married Viranica Reddy, niece of the Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. In 2011, they had twin daughters. In January 2018, they had a son^[34] and in August 2019, they had a daughter.^[35]

While filming the light-hearted comedy Achari America Yatra (2018), Manchu had a near-fatal experience on the set. The actor, who was shooting in Malaysia,^[36][37][38] suffered serious injuries when he hit his opponent with a helmet during a bike stunt scene and lost balance of his vehicle forcing him to hit the ground hard.

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1985	Ragile Gundelu	Un­known	Child artist
2003	Vishnu	Vishnu	Filmfare Best Male Debut South
2004	Suryam	Suryam
2005	Political Rowdy	Dancer	Cameo appearance
2006	Astram	ACP Siddharth IPS	Remake of Sarfarosh
	Game	Vijay Raj	Adaptation of Changing Lanes
2007	Dhee	Srinivas "Babloo" Rao
2008	Krishnarjuna	Arjun
2009	Saleem	Saleem / Munna
2011	Vastadu Naa Raju	Venky	Also producer
2012	Denikaina Ready	Suleman / Krishna Shastri	Also producer; Remake of Udayapuram Sulthan
2013	Doosukeltha	Chinna / Venkateshwara Rao	Also producer
2014	Pandavulu Pandavulu Tummeda	Vijay	Part remake of Golmaal 3
	Rowdy	Krishna	Remake of Sarkar
	Anukshanam	Gautam	Also producer
	Erra Bus	Rajesh	Also distributor; Remake of Manja Pai
2015	Dynamite	Sivaji Krishna	Also producer; Remake of Arima Nambi
2016	Eedo Rakam Aado Rakam	Arjun	Remake of Carry on Jatta
2017	Luckunnodu	Lucky
2018	Gayatri	Shivaji
	Achari America Yatra	Krishnamachari
2019	Voter	Gautam
2021	Mosagallu	Arjun	Story and producer; simultaneously shot in Telugu and English
2022	Ginna	Gali Nageshwara Rao		^[39]
2024	Kannappa †	Kannappa	Filming	^[40]

As producer

• Siva Shankar (2003; presenter)
• Current Theega (2014)
• Singam 123 (2015; also writer)
• Mama Manchu Alludu Kanchu (2015)
• Chadarangam (2020; Zee5 web series)^[41]
• Son Of India (2022)

Other work

Television

Manchu made his foray into television by directing the 100th episode of Zee Telugu's series Happy Days. The episode achieved the highest TRP ratings among the 700 episodes of the series. Happy Days is also produced by 24 Frames Factory. He has also directed Lakshmi Talk Show or Premathoo Mee Lakshmi.^[42]

Producer

Manchu heads the 24 Frames Factory production house which in 2014 produced Pandavulu Pandavulu Tummeda, a comedy film with an ensemble cast. He also heads ThinkSmart, which handles post-production including graphics and other elements for cinema. Atanokkade, from ThinkSmart, won the best video effects award.^[43][44]

Educationist

Manchu is the director of Spring Board International Preschools. When he joined with the Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust set up by his father, it was already a well-established educational institution. He took charge of this institution and built them into model institutions offering value-based education to the students. He expanded and diversified it into Spring Board Academy, and became founder and chairman at the New York Academy.^[45]

Manchu runs the Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust, founded by his father. The trust runs the Sree Vidyanikethan International School, Sree Vidyanikethan Degree College, Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College, Sree Vidyanikethan College of Pharmacy, Sree Vidyanikethan College of Nursing, the Sree Vidyanikethan Institute of Management and the Sree Vidyanikethan College for Post Graduation Studies.^[46]

Apart from an actor of repute, Vishnu Manchu is the pro-chancellor of the most reputed Mohan Babu University at Tirupati, founded in 2022 by his legendary father Dr. M. Mohan Babu.^[47][48]

Army Green

Manchu started a social unit called Army Green for promoting environmental awareness. It adopted small settlements in the vicinity of the Sree Vidyanikethan Institutions.^[49][50]

Vishnu Manchu Art Foundation

Manchu set up an art foundation in Tirupati, the Vishnu Manchu Art Foundation (VMAF).^[51] Known as an institution established for the benefit and use of contemporary and gifted artists, the foundation provides a much-needed space free from any financial and commercial constraints. The main aim of the VMAF is to provide help to aspiring and talented artists to evolve the reach of their creativity. VMAF conducts a series of Make Art, Show Art and Beyond Art programmes each year.

As an art educational institution, Vishnu Manchu Art Foundation^[52] regularly hosts lectures and discussions on issues relating to the contemporary arts and artists. VMAF is a venue for art lovers and the artistic community to engage in spirited conversations with art critics and renowned academics who showcase their work at the foundation. VMAF is known for its traditional works and injection of new creative ideas and expressions.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Dhee (motion picture) (in Telugu). India: Shalimar Telugu & Hindi Movies. 2007. Event occurs at 0:09:42. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
2. "Vishnu Manchu's 'Kannappa' first look launched on actor's birthday!". The Times of India. 23 November 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
3. "Interview with Vishnu". Idlebrain.com. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
4. . movies.andhraglitz.in (June 2012)
5. "Founder and Chairman of New York Academy". August 2016.
6. "Chairman of Spring Board Academy". August 2016.
7. "Chairman of Spring Board International Preschools". August 2013.
8. "Spring Board has more than 75 branches". September 2017.
9. "Tirupati Mohan Babu University Inaugurated". The Hans India. 20 March 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
10. . indiaglitz.com. Archived from the original on 10 January 2011.
11. . msn.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
12. . The Times of India. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013.
13. Raje, Abhishek (26 December 2011). "Vishnu Manchu names kids Ariaana and Viviana". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
14. . The Times of India. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012.
15. "Potugadu Movie Release". Telugu Film News.
16. "Manoj Manchu Emotional After Directing Dad Mohan Babu – The Hans India". thehansindia.com. 15 November 2013.
17. . indiaglitz.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2010.
18. "Vishnu Manchu excited about 'Doosukeltha Kerala' release". Yahoo Maktoob News. 4 November 2013.
19. . IBNLive. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013.
20. Box Office: 'Rowdy' Performs Well; 'Legend' Ends 2nd Week on Decent Note. International Business Times (11 April 2014). Retrieved on 28 September 2017.
21. Box Office Report: 'Legend', 'Rowdy', 'Hrudaya Kaleyam'. International Business Times (8 April 2014). Retrieved on 28 September 2017.
22. Box Office: Balakrishna's 'Legend', Mohan Babu's 'Rowdy' Collections. International Business Times (6 April 2014). Retrieved on 28 September 2017.
23. "VISHNU MANCHU". The Times of India. 13 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
24. "Manchu Vishnu begins filming sequence of 'Mosagallu' in US". The News Minute. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
25. "Jeffrey Gee Chin to helm Vishnu Mmanchus Mosagallu". Deccan Chronicle. 7 July 2019.
26. "Mosagallu final box office verdict the vishnu manchu starrer becomes an average runner at the box office". The Times of India. 19 July 2021.
27. "Vishnus Mosagallu Final box office collections report". The Hans India. 19 June 2021.
28. "MAA elections 2021: 'Insider' Vishnu Manchu defeats 'outsider' Prakash Raj". The Indian Express. 10 October 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
29. Vishnu Manchu elected as a new president for MAA - The Hindu
30. "Ginna Movie Final Collections". Teluguodu. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
31. "VISHNU MANCHU'S GINNA MOVIE BOX OFFICE COLLECTIONS". iQlikMovies. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
32. "Manchu Vishnu kicks off 'Kannappa' with grand pooja ceremony". Times of India. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
33. "Mohan Babu and Vishnu Manchu to produce a film with a whopping 100 crore budget". 123Telugu. 10 June 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
34. "Vishnu Manchu and Wife Viranica blessed with a Baby Boy – TOI". timesofindia.com. 2 January 2018.
35. "Vishnu Manchu and wife Viranica welcome baby girl, their fourth child". India Today. 10 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
36. "Vishnu Manchu Met with Accident in Malaysia". thetelugufilmnagar.com. 30 July 2017.
37. "Actor Vishnu injured during film shoot". July 2017.
38. "Vishnu Manchu Met with Accident in Malaysia". July 2017.
39. "Vishnu Manchu, Sunny Leone and Payal Rajput's film titled 'Ginna'". TOI. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
40. "Vishnu Manchu Begins His Dream Project Kannappa". Deccan Chronicle. 19 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
41. TelanganaToday. "Manchu Vishnu's Chadarangam to premiere on Zee 5". Telangana Today. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
42. "Prematho Mee Lakshmi talk show with celebrities on ETV by Lakshmi". metromasti.com.
43. ThinkSmart wins the Best VFX Award 2005 for "Atanokkade". Animationxpress.com (22 January 2007). Retrieved on 28 September 2017.
44. "Vishnu to produce Sampoornesh Babu's Singham 123". Times Of India. 28 September 2014.
45. "NYA Founder and Chairman". newyorkacademy.com.
46. "SVET Fund Raising in New Jersey". greatandhra.com. 16 December 2011.
47. "Tollywood actor Mohan Babu announces university named after him". Telangana Today. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
48. "Mohan Babu University: తిరుపతిలో మోహన్ బాబు యూనివర్సిటీ..." ABP News. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
49. "Vishnu Manchu takes pride in voting". Yahoo News India. 24 July 2013.
50. IANS (24 July 2013). "Vishnu Manchu takes pride in voting". business-standard.com.
51. "Vishnu Manchu Art Foundation Inaugurated". indiaglitz.com. 18 March 2015.
52. "Vishnu Manchu Art Foundation". telugucinemas.in.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manchu Vishnu.

• Official website
• Vishnu Manchu at IMDb