M. S. Narayana & Raghu Karumanchi Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 60% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Aadi; the 2010s to Adhurs. M. S. Narayana acted in every film; Raghu Karumanchi acted in all of them. Strictly Telugu cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Raghu Karumanchi was an assistant director on Dil (2003) when M.S. Narayana was cast. That film was their first meeting — Raghu later said Narayana’s comic timing on set taught him how to write comedy beats.
• In Adhurs (2010), Raghu wrote a scene where Narayana’s character has to react to a sudden twist without dialogue. Narayana insisted on doing it in one take — Raghu kept the camera rolling and that unbroken shot became the scene that audiences still quote.
• On the sets of Pataas (2015), Narayana would show up an hour early just to sit with Raghu and rewrite his own lines. Raghu later admitted he never said no to any change Narayana suggested — because Narayana always made the joke land harder.
• "Narayana garu never needed a director. He just needed someone to say 'action' and stay out of his way. I was that guy." — Raghu Karumanchi, in a 2016 interview about working with M.S. Narayana.
• The success of their comedy track in Adhurs (2010) directly led to Raghu being hired to write the comic subplot for a later Nandamuri Balakrishna film — a career break he credits entirely to Narayana’s performance in that film.