Manchu Vishnu

Manchu Vishnu (Telugu: విష్ణు మంచు; born November 23, 1981) is an Indian actor, director, producer in the South Indian Film Industry. He is also the CEO of MBC (Mohan Babu Corporation), 24 Frames Factory and the Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust. He began his foray into Telugu Cinema by appearing in a lead role in the self-titled 2003 hit, Vishnu. This film consequently got him to win the Filmfare award for the Best Male Debut.^[2] His 2007 film Dhee, was one of the most successful Telugu films of that year. The actor also sponsors the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) team, Telugu Warriors and was a minority stake holder in the Indian Cricket League (ICL).^[3][4][5]

Early Life and Education

Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, to an actor, politician, educator father Mohan Babu and mother late Vidya Devi.^[6] Vishnu Manchu's first appearance on the Silver Screen came at the tender age of 4 as a child artist in the 1985 movie Ragile Gundelu. He grew up with his siblings- brother Manchu Manoj and sister Manchu Lakshmi. Both of his siblings have established themselves as multifaceted personalities both in and out of the film industry.^{[7][8][9][10]}

After completing schooling from the Padmaseshadri Balabhavan School, Vishnu Manchu went on to take an Engineering Degree in the Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College majoring in Computer Sciences and Information Technology. During this time, he represented the Bhaskar JNTU Cricket team as an opening batsman and strike bowler for four years and also captained the University Basketball team. His love for sports took him to explore great frontiers beyond his university. During his college, he also represented the Andhra Pradesh under-21 State Basketball team as Vice-Captain and also went on to represent the Chittorr district as an Opening Batsman for two seasons.

After graduating from the Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College, he also appeared for the Indian Civil Services (IPS) examination to fulfill the dreams of his father Dr. M. Mohan Babu. His father wanted him to serve the state and the country by joining the Indian Civil Services. During this time, Vishnu Manchu also wanted to pursue acting as the Silver Screen beckoned him. He flew to Los Angeles, CA, USA where he took several courses in Film Acting and Direction helping him gain a much broader perspective and insight into the arts and technicalities involved around films and film making.

Career

Actor

During his stay in the United States, Vishnu Manchu also trained to become a stuntman and studied Martial Arts. He believed that he needed to work from a scratch to understand the difficulties and elements involved for an artist to learn, progress and find opportunities. In the United States, when he began his connections with Hollywood, he spent many months playing non-descripted parts in the Wachowski brothers' blockbuster Matrix and as an extra in Jet Li's Cradle 2 - The Grave. He also spent time working as a dancer in the US.

When he returned to India finally, Vishnu broke into the Telugu Cinema Industry with a lead role in the self-titled 2003 film Vishnu. Directed by Shaji Kailas, he went on to win the Filmfare Award for the Best Debut Male for his performance. He proceeded to play lead roles in the 2004 movie Suryam, 2006 films Asthram and Game. He also starred next to his father in the 2005 movie Political Rowdy. Although he didn't really gain much commercial success for the first three years of his debut, he finally got his critical breakthrough with the movie Dhee alongside Genelia D'Souza. Released in 2007, Dhee became his first commercial blockbuster movie. It was remade into Tamil as Mirattal, Bengali as Khokababu and Oriya as Tu mo girlfriend. After receiving critical acclaim for his portrayal of Srinivas 'Babloo' Rao in Dhee, he went on to explore more frontiers with the 2008 movie Krishnarjuna, 2009's Saleem and the 2010 movie Vastadu Naa Raju^[11]

The 2012 comedy flick Dhenikaina Ready got him critical success in the Telugu Film Industry. The movie went on to run for 175 days and grossed a whopping 20 crore at the box office. The film was also dubbed in Malayalam as Endhinum Ready and was released on the same day as the movie in Telugu. The film was produced under his own banner 24 Frames Factory. On 17 October 2013, his next film in a lead role was released. Titled Doosukeltha and directed by Veeru Potla, he starred opposite Lavanya Tripathi of Andala Rakshasi fame. The film is a romantic family entertainer and was also produced by his production company, 24 Frames Factory. The film has achieved great commercial success and grossed 12.63 crores on its first week in the Box office. The film was also dubbed in Malayalam and released in Kerala as Sarva Kala Vallavan.^[12][13]

Director

As an artist with a deep attachment to direction, Vishnu Manchu made his foray into direction by directing the 100th episode of a local language channel, Zee Telugu's TV series titled Happy Days. The episode went on to achieve the highest TRP ratings among the 700 episodes part of the series. Happy Days also happens to be produced by 24 Frames Factory, Manchu Vishnu's production house. As a director, he is also credited with launching the careers of many junior artists who have been part of the series.

He also directed Lakshmi Talk Show or Premathoo Mee Lakshmi - television's most watched show in Andhra Pradesh. Lakshmi Talk Show featured his sister Manchu Lakshmi as the host. With the show, Manchu Lakshmi was introduced to the small screen. The show consisted of a total of 26 episodes all of which was conceptualized, directed and produced by Vishnu Manchu. Due to complacency, he preferred the credits screen refer him as VM instead of his full name, however, Lakshmi Talk Show went on to become the most successful and loved talk show on the small screen in Andhra Pradesh. The show featured interviews with some of the biggest celebrities in and out of the Telugu Film Industry including Rajendra Prasad, Chiranjeevi, SP Balasubramanyam, Chandra Babu Naidu, Venkaiah Naidu and many more. As a popular and loved celebrity in the state, Lakshmi Manchu went on to achieve other things after the talk show.^[14]

Producer

Manchu Vishnu also heads the 24 Frames Factory Production house and ThinkSmart, a post-production company. Both of these companies have been instrumental in taking the film industry to a new dimension. 24 Frames Factory develops and conceives content suited to Television, Radio and Mobile Communication. With the motto of developing quality content to garner to entertainment, 24 Frames Factory also has a team that looks into the verticals of small-budget films, quality serials, talk, reality, game and film-related shows. Recent movies produced include hits like Doosukeltha, Dhenikaina Ready and many more. In 2014, 24 Frames Factory will also produce Pandavulu Pandavulu Tummeda, a comedy flick with an ensemble cast.

ThinkSmart on the other hand, handles post-production including graphics and other elements for cinema. Their recent projects include big names such as Krrish, Aparichitudu, Game and many more. ThinkSmart also won the Cinegoers Award for Best VFX for the spectacular work they did with the 2005 Tamil movie Atanokkade^[15]

Spearheading these two companies, Vishnu Manchu has positioned himself not only as an Actor and Director, but also a technically sound perfectionist aiming for quality in entertainment.

Contributions to Education

Manchu Vishnu also heads the Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust established by his father Padma Shri Dr. M. Mohan Babu as a CEO. As a CEO, he takes charge of initiating new strategies and implementing them for operational perfection of the group of institutions under the trust. The trust runs the Sree Vidyanikethan International School, Sree Vidyanikethan degree College, Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College, Sree Vidyanikethan College of Pharmacy, Sree Vidyanikethan College of Nursing, The Sree Vidyanikethan College of Management and the Sree Vidyanikethan College for Post Graduation Studies.

As the CEO, Vishnu Manchu works towards his goal of empowering the youth through his many endeavors that form the core of Sree Vidyanikethan's operations. The institution also offers 25% of its seats to needy children from unprivileged backgrounds irrespective of caste or creed. The institutions also ensure world class facilities to all it's members including students and staff. Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Trust is now ranked as one of the biggest premier centers of quality education and learning under Vishnu Manchu's leadership.^[16]

Philanthrophy

A village of weavers called Rajoli in the Waddepalle Mandal of the Mahbubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, was completely decimated leaving over 40,000 people homeless and helpless after a catastrophic flood in 2009. While they were struggling for aid, Vishnu Manchu visited the village with brother Manchu Manoj, father Dr. M. Mohan Babu and several other volunteers to donate food and essentials. During their stay in the village, they announced that the village will be adopted and all necessities to the people will be delivered. During this time, they donated three sets of clothing for every man and child, five Saris for every woman with blankets, utensils, mosquito nets and food.

Army Green

Manchu Vishnu started a social unit called Army Green for promoting environmental awareness and to develop model villages with clean water, sanitation facilities, electricity and education. Under his leadership, Army Green adopted over 25 villages near A. Rangampet and developed these villages and provided facilities including clean water, toilets and environmental education to villagers. These villages also happen to fall in the vicinity of the Sree Vidyanikethan Institutions.^[17][18]

Army Green has donated dust bins, provided a waste disposal system under his concept called Wealth out of Waste to generate electricity. They have conducted weekly meetings to create environmental and hygiene awareness in these villages and have suggested them on health, hygiene and sanitation. They have also continued to donate desks, benches, black boards, computer systems and digital projectors to rural schools in these villages. Besides this, they visit the schools regularly to conduct educational workshops on English, Computer Sciences, Etiquette and encourage everyone to take up higher education based on their personal interests.

In the rural schools, Army Green continues to construct class rooms and hygienic toilets including educating students, parents and teachers on the importance of sanitation, personal hygiene and encourage them to adopt an environment-friendly approach. They have organized specialized health camps on Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Pediatrics, ENT, Diabetes, Cancer, General Medicine, and provide Medicines and Medical Aids at a marginal price. Besides this, they've also provided nutritional and medical help to expectant mothers and babies. Under the inspirational leadership of Manchu Vishnu, they also help the Sree Vidyanikethan Educational Institutions offer free and subsidized education to several students from these villages.

With their motto to make the world a cleaner, safer and a better place, they've also planted several hundreds of trees in an around the villages they've been assisting till date.

Personal life

Vishnu Manchu grew up with his two siblings - sister Manchu Lakshmi and brother Manchu Manoj. In the year 2008, he married Viranica Reddy, niece of the late Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. In 2011, Vishnu Manchu and Viranica Manchu were blessed with twin girls Ariaana and Viviana.

Filmography

References