Tharun Bhascker

Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian film director, writer, actor, and television presenter who works in Telugu Film Industry. He directed the critically acclaimed romantic comedy film Pelli Choopulu (2016), which won him the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu and Best Screenplay – Dialogues. He later directed Ee Nagaraniki Emaindhi (2018), and made his acting debut in a lead role with Meeku Maathrame Cheptha (2019).

Early life
Tharun Bhascker was born on 5 November 1988 in Madras and was raised in Hyderabad. His father hailed from Warangal, Telangana, while his mother is from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Bhasckar studied at Hyderabad Public School, and Swami Vivekananda Institute of Technology. He later graduated from New York Film Academy.

His father, Uday Bhaskar, died in 2015. His mother, Geetha Bhaskar, made her acting debut in Sekhar Kammula's Fidaa (2017).

Film career
Bhascker started his career directing short films such as Anukokunda, and Sainma. Anukokunda was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

His first full length directorial feature film was Pelli Choopulu (2016). The film received National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu, and Bhasckar won Best Screenplay for Dialogues. The film was remade in Hindi as Mitron (2018), in Malayalam as Vijay Superum Pournamiyum (2019), and in Tamil as Oh Manapenne.

In 2018, Bhasckar made his acting debut with the role of Singeetham Srinivasa Rao in the biopic Mahanati. His second directorial is the buddy comedy film Ee Nagaraniki Emaindhi (2018). Later in the year, he wrote the screenplay for the Zee5 web series, B. Tech.

In 2019, Bhaskar played the lead role in Meeku Maathrame Cheptha.

Keedaa Cola, directed by Tharun Bhascker, was released on November 3, 2023.

Personal life
Bhasckar is married to Latha Naidu. She is a production and costume designer for films and advertisements. She worked for films such as Pelli Choopulu, Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi and U Turn.