Manjula’s new challenge

Actress-producer Manjula Ghattamaneni, daughter of veteran actor Krishna and sister of Mahesh Babu, has taken up a new challenge as she turns director with her next untitled production with Sundeep Kishan and Amyra Dastur in the lead.

Leading producer Gemini Kiran is a partner in this breezy entertainer. “It will be a pure love story,” aver the makers. The challenge for the actress-turned-director is that, Telugu filmdom is male-dominated and there are very female directors in the industry.

“Manjula proved herself as a good actor and producer in films and now making directorial debut. Besides wielding mega phone, Manjula has also penned story and screenplay for the movie,” adds a source.

Even though, there are a few women directors like Nandini Reddy, B Jaya, Jeevitha but they are making films once-in-a-while, since there is a glass ceiling. Manjula came into the limelight with her off-beat film ‘Show’ and received loads of critical acclaim and National Award but wasn’t a money spinner.

However,as a producer she minted money with two films `Pokiri’ and `Yem Maaya Chesave’, but lost heavily in films like `Kavya’s Diary’. “She has a big challenge on hand since direction is not everyone’s cup of tea,” says a distributor.