KV Vijayendra Prasad

K. V. Vijayendra Prasad is an Indian writer and director who works mainly in Telugu cinema. He is widely seen as one of the country's most successful screen storytellers, and he is best known for Magadheera, the Baahubali films and RRR. Many of his stories were made into films by director S. S. Rajamouli, and several of them rank among India's top-earning films ever. His best-known honour is the Filmfare Award for Best Story, which he won in 2016 for Bajrangi Bhaijaan. His writing credits go back to Bobbili Simham (1994). He wrote the stories for the Telugu hits Yamadonga (2007) and Magadheera (2009), and then for Eega (2012). In 2012 he also wrote the Hindi films Rowdy Rathore and Son of Sardaar, and he directed Rajanna. He created the story behind Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), wrote Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), and wrote the screenplay for the Tamil film Mersal (2017). His later credits include Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi (2019), Thalaivi (2021), RRR (2022), Chatrapathi (2023) and Vāranāsi (2027). His stories pair large-scale action with strong feeling, and they have worked in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil films alike. Rajanna, the film he directed, brought him a Nandi Award in the Best Feature Film category. In July 2022, Ram Nath Kovind, then head of state, chose him to serve in the Rajya Sabha.