Mounted on a budget of Rs. 40 crore, Prasanth Varma’s superhero film Hanuman has minted Rs. 250 crore at the global box office. At a time when films with enormous budgets fall flat both in VFX and collections, the Telugu movie has surprised one and all.

“I knew it will be liked by the audience when we watched it before the release. But the box-office numbers are something we never expected or aimed at. This will help me make one more film,” he says.

The National Film Award-winning filmmaker also directed the first-ever Telugu zombie horror film, Zombie Reddy (2021). Initially set to become a software engineer, he found his calling after directing a music video. “That video did well, so my friend said, ‘Let’s do more’. That led to me making the short film A Silent Melody,” says Varma.

Having made the most of a relatively small budget with Hanuman, does Varma see himself deliver even more spectacular stuff with a bigger purse? “After this film, people will not come to me with big budgets. They will say, ‘Itne kam mein bana diya hai toh zyaada kyun?’ [But] I will collaborate with people who believe in a big vision. I was down and out personally and professionally when I wanted to make Zombie Reddy. My producer then came to me and said, ‘What do you want to make?’ and I told him. He just said, ‘Sounds fun, let’s do it’. I was blessed to have such people back me,” says Varma, who has already announced the sequel to Hanuman.