Harinath Babu is a film director from India who debuted as a director with the Telugu film Nuvvu Thopu Raa, released on 03 May 2019. He has been appreciated for his handling of the story, the emotional scenes, the performances he coaxed out of the cast of Indian and American actors and other aspects of the movie. Critics have expressed the view that Nuvvu Thopu Raa does not appear to be the first-time effort of somebody as a director - it is the work of a person with extensive knowledge of and experience in directing films.

Harinath Babu's passion for the world of storytelling goes back to childhood when his friends would listen with rapt attention to his narration of the stories of films he had seen. In college, he was applauded for both his direction and performance as an actor in stage plays. He went on to complete, first, a Post Graduate Diploma in Acting and Multimedia and, then, a Masters (MA) in Theatre Arts (Direction and Multimedia) from Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University. While a student of these courses, Harinath Babu acted and assisted in theatre productions such as Ma Illu Maayam Ayyindi and Mama Neeko Dandam and TV productions such as Anveshana, Manushulu Mamathalu, Madhavi and Sangramam.

His mentor Kiran (director of the film, Abhi) introduced him to the Telugu film industry in 2001, on the sets of Santhosham (directed by Dashrath). He also spent time on the sets of Eshwar (the debut film of Prabhas, directed by Jayant C Paranjpe), keenly observing and learning the art of movie-making. He assisted in script-writing for Sambharam (directed by Dashrath) and also essayed a key role as a police informer in Aithe, directed by Chandrasekhar Yeleti. Soon, in 2003, he got a break as an Associate Director for Kiran Kumar who was directing Abhi.

With the big screen as his ultimate goal, to hone his skills as a director, he worked as a Director for Eenadu TV from 2004 to 2006, directing episodes for popular programs such as Nammaleni Nijalu and Neralu Ghoralu.

In 2007, Harinath Babu got an important break in the Telugu film industry - he joined Y.V.S. Chowdary as an Associate Director for Okka Magadu (starring Balakrishna, Anushka Shetty, Simran and Priyanka Kothari (aka Nisha Kothari). More opportunities followed - he worked on a couple of scripts with Krishna Vamsi and then joined him as an Associate Director for Sasirekha Parinayam.

As movie-making turned increasingly digital, Harinath Babu kept himself abreast of the emerging technologies, learning editing software like Avid and VFX software like After Effects, Combustion, Digital Fusion and Maya.

Accumulating more experience working in different projects, making ads and documentaries, Harinath also kept working on movie scripts. In 2016, he finally started his first directorial venture, Nuvvu Thopu Raa.

Nuvvu Thopu Raa has been appreciated on digital platforms such as Amazon Prime and YouTube - it has crossed the 1.7 million views mark in YouTube within a span of about 8 months (it was released in YouTube on 27 Nov 2019). It has also been released on a new streaming platform, aha.

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Personal notes: Harinath's birthday is on 31 August. His wife has a Ph. D in Chemistry and has worked as a Senior Research Associate in the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Tarnaka, Hyderabad. They have two children. 

Harinath Babu is a law graduate from Osmania University. He is a member of the Bar Council, Hyderabad. He holds diplomas in Sanskrit from Ramakrishna Mutt and Nizam College.

He is a Shodan black belt in martial arts (Budokan Karate). He is a life member of the Budokan Association.

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