Koratala Siva

Koratala Siva (born 15 June 1975) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. Koratala has directed action drama films such as Mirchi (2013), Srimanthudu (2015), Janatha Garage (2016), Bharat Ane Nenu (2018) and Acharya (2022). He has received two Nandi Awards and an IIFA Utsavam Award for his directional works.

Early life and start-up career
Born into a family of social activists with communist ideologies, he began his early career working in the information technology industry as a software engineer. He then worked as a screenwriting assistant for films under his uncle, Posani Krishna Murali. Subsequently, he ventured into Telugu film industry as a dialogue writer for films such as Okkadunnadu, Bhadra Munna, Brindavanam, and Oosaravelli.

Film directorial career
In 2013, he made his film directorial debut with Mirchi starring Prabhas which was a box-office success. In 2015, he directed action-drama film Srimanthudu, which was a commercial success, and has received three Filmfare Awards South, six IIFA Awards, and six SIIMA Awards.

His 2016 film Janatha Garage starred Mohanlal and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. The story follows operating a large automobile service center named "Janatha Garage" and undertaking law enforcement through their group of automobile mechanics, because the legal agencies were thought to be inadequate. The film grossed estimated ₹140 crore and earned a distributor's share amount of ₹70 crore in its first week of release. Koratala scored his third consecutive success as a director with the film. He returned to direct actor Mahesh Babu in the political action drama film Bharat Ane Nenu and continued his success streak at the box-office, with the film grossing ₹164 crore at the box-office.

In early 2020, Koratala started filming his next directional, Acharya with Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan in the lead. The film, released in April 2022, received negative reviews and ended up as the poorest performing film at the box office in Koratala's career.

Koratala is next directing a film with NTR Jr titled as Devara, marking their second collaboration after Janatha Garage. It is being produced by Nandamuri Kalyan Ram and Mikkilineni Sudhakar under N. T. R. Arts and Yuvasudha Arts, respectively. Following this, he is slated to work with Allu Arjun.