Prasanth Varma breaks silence on feud with HanuMan producer over ₹20 crore advance; allegations against him explained

Prasanth Varma and Niranjan Reddy have been feuding in the Telugu Film Chamber. The director broke his silence after the news leaked.

A couple of days after news leaked that a few Tollywood producers, including HanuMan production house M/S Primeshow Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. complained to the Telugu Film Chamber that director Prasanth Varma allegedly took advances and failed to deliver films, the filmmaker broke his silence.

Producer Niranjan Reddy has accused director Prasanth Varma of taking over ₹20 crore in advance and not delivering films.

He denied all allegations made against him and said this.

Prasanth Varma denies allegations against him

Prasanth wrote in his note on X (formerly Twitter) that he had seen social media pages and media portals circulating the complaint filed by the production house, claiming they had only published a selective portion of his reply. He condemned it, adding, “The dispute between me and M/S Primeshow Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. is presently pending and under consideration before the Telugu Film Chamber/Telugu Film Directors' Association and is therefore sub-judice.”

He pointed out that once a matter is in the industry forum, all parties are expected not to dispute in the media. “Any attempt to publish internal pleadings, emails, agreements or financial details at this stage amounts to interference with the proceedings and is clearly intended to prejudice public opinion,” he wrote. Prasanth also asked the media to refrain from publishing any further news till the Film Chamber announces the outcome, stating, “I categorically state that the allegations made against me are all false baseless and retaliatory.”

HanuMan producer’s allegations against Prasanth Varma

In a letter addressed to the Telugu Film Producers Council on October 11, producer K Niranjan Reddy alleged that Prasanth did not honour his commitments, despite having taken advances from him. The complaint states that while shooting for HanuMan in 2021, Prasanth agreed with the producer to further collaborate on Adhira, Mahakali, Jai Hanuman, and Brahma Rakshas as part of the PVCU with him.

The complaint states that the production house incurred an expenditure of ₹15 lakh towards the teaser of Adhira. Niranjan also alleges that in 2022, he paid Prasanth ₹50 lakh via bank transfer and ₹1 crore in cash, in addition to paying ₹50 lakh more later on, totalling a sum of ₹2 crore. In 2024, he claims to have paid the director ₹8 crore via bank transfer and cash for the upcoming projects.

Niranjan alleges that in 2024, after taking the money, Prasanth ‘suddenly’ informed him that Adhira would be directed by Vijay Binni, asking them to pay him ₹15 lakh. The film has allegedly not commenced to date. Similarly, he later informed Niranjan that Pooja Aparna Kolluru would direct Mahakali and asked him to pay her over ₹2 lakh. The producer also claims that Prasanth ‘illegally’ committed to Mythri Movie Makers as producers of Jai Hanuman, a sequel to HanuMan, which he produced.

He also claimed that Hombale Films might be on board to produce Brahma Rakshas, despite Primeshow allegedly already having paid over ₹10 crore to Prasanth for these films. Apart from that, Niranjan also alleged that he paid Prasanth another ₹10 crore for a film called Octopus in 2022, part of which, he claimed, had already been shot. The producer is now seeking ₹100 crore compensation for Jai Hanuman and ₹25 crore each for Adhira, Mahakali, Octopus and Brahma Rakshas, totalling ₹200 crore in damages.

In his reply to the chamber on October 27, Prasanth denied the allegations, claiming that despite HanuMan earning ₹295 crore worldwide, he was only paid over ₹7 crore after the film's release and that he received no profits despite their agreement. He also alleged that he has been asking the producer to make pending payments. He also claimed that he was paid ₹1 crore for the teaser of Adhira and nothing more.