Tanikella Bharani & Harish Shankar Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 60% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Modati Cinema; the 2020s to Mr Bachchan. Tanikella Bharani acted in every film; Harish Shankar directed all of them. Strictly Telugu cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Harish Shankar was an assistant director on Modati Cinema (2005) — that's how he first worked with Tanikella Bharani. Years later, when Harish became a director himself, he cast Bharani in Duvvada Jagannadham (2017) and Mr Bachchan (2024), making him one of the few actors Harish has worked with across three decades of his own career.
• In Duvvada Jagannadham (2017), Harish Shankar wrote a specific comedy track for Tanikella Bharani's character — a bumbling priest who keeps mispronouncing English words. Bharani improvised most of the dialogue on set, and Harish kept the takes because they were funnier than his script.
• Tanikella Bharani has said in interviews that Harish Shankar is one of the few directors who calls him 'anna' (elder brother) off-camera, even though Harish is nearly 20 years younger. They share a mutual love for old Telugu literature — they'd discuss poetry between shots on Mr Bachchan (2024).
• "Harish is the only director who gave me a role where I had to beat up a hero with a broom. I told him, 'You've finally found my true potential.'" — Tanikella Bharani, joking about his scene in Duvvada Jagannadham (2017) during a 2018 film festival Q&A.