Where is the Director of ‘Anaganaga Oka Raju’?

Naveen Polishetty had announced the movie Anaganaga Oka Raju years before he made Miss Shetty Mr. Polishetty. Initially, Kalyan Shankar, the director of Mad, was supposed to direct this film. However, due to some reasons, the project was put on hold. After that, Naveen went on to make Miss Shetty Mr. Polishetty, which became a hit. Many assumed that Anaganaga Oka Raju would never move forward and that Naveen would work on other projects.

But to everyone’s surprise, Naveen restarted the project, this time bringing in a new director named Maari. The film was completed a few months ago and is set to release this Sankranti. Naveen is personally promoting the film in his unique style and the promotional effort seems unmatched among Sankranti releases.

Interestingly, the director Maari is nowhere to be seen in the promotions. Naveen does not even mention him and producer Nagavamsi also avoids referring to the director during interviews. Naveen seems to be taking full credit, claiming he handled the writing, created a strong script, managed comedy scenes and shaped the climax himself. This has sparked rumors in the industry that Naveen has effectively ghost-directed the movie. A director is credited in name only, while Naveen runs the entire project. It will be interesting to see if Maari appears or speaks about the film at the pre-release event and whether the team gives him any recognition.