Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet and playwright who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including few in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi; while he was also screenwriter for 52 films. He has won three Nandi Awards.
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Early life
Tanikella Bharani's ancestors includes poets and literary figures of Telugu literature. Diwakarla Venkatavadhani and Viswanatha Satyanarayana were his grand uncles. Divakarla Tirupati Sastry, one of the Telugu poet duo Tirupati Venkata Kavulu, was his great-granduncle.
He was born into a Telugu Brahmin family.
He is a religious Hindu who is known for singing devotional songs in praise of Sri Shiva and Devi Parvati, and propagates to his fellow Hindus to not just read the Bhagavad Gita but to follow what it teaches.
Career
Tanikella did stage plays in the mid 1970s and during this time he made the acquaintance of Rallapalli, a Telugu cinema actor. With his help Tanikella started writing small dialogues and stage scenes. Later, he took a diploma in Theatre arts. Following Rallapalli's advice he moved to Chennai.
He started his career as a dialogue writer for Kanchu Kavachum in 1984 and has written dialogues for various movies like Ladies Tailor (1985), Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi Recording Dance Troupe (1987), Varasudochhadu (1988), Chettu Kinda Pleader (1989), Swara Kalpana (1989), Siva (1989) and Seenu Vasanthi Lakshmi (2004). He also penned and sung the lyrics of Gundamma Gaari Manavadu (Bhale Bhaleti Mandu).
