Meet Yugandhar Tammareddy, Telugu cinema’s VFX expert joining the Oscars Academy in 2025

Visual effects supervisor Yugandhar Tammareddy, who has worked on Telugu films like Rangasthalam, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, and Devara, has been inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is the only one from the Telugu film industry in this year’s class of 534 new global members, which also includes Kamal Haasan, Ayushmann Khurrana and filmmaker Payal Kapadia.

With this lifetime membership, Yugandhar gets to vote for the Oscars and take part in events leading up to the awards each year. “Someone from the Academy reached out to me late last year,” he says. “They did background checks and finalised everything over six months.”

Yugandhar, who has spent 26 years in the world of animation and VFX, remembers one of his earliest films clearly — Rajakumarudu (1999), which was Mahesh Babu’s debut. “There were just two VFX shots in the film. One had Mahesh slicing an apple with a sword — and that apple was entirely VFX. It was a huge thing back then.”

Yugandhar’s love for creative work began early, and with his father’s encouragement, he dove into animation in the mid-90s. “I started learning 3D software and working on computers, which wasn’t common at the time,” he says.

Yugandhar Tammareddy recalls how Ammoru (1995) sparked interest in “special effects” at a time when VFX in Indian cinema was rare and laborious. Film reels had to be scanned and teams had to coordinate with studios in other cities — an expensive and time-consuming process.

In the early 2000s, Hyderabad saw steady growth in animation and visual effects, which boomed in the last decade as big-budget productions embraced larger-than-life storytelling. “Today, films demand detailed, cutting-edge VFX,” says Yugandhar.

A glimpse of a shot featuring NTR Jr from ‘Devara’ prior to VFX
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The same shot post the environment created with the use of VFX
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Before choosing a film, he listens to story narrations to gauge the director’s vision and identify scope for VFX. “We assess the complexity, budget, timelines, and the balance between live action and effects,” he explains. His role involves coordinating with action choreographers, cinematographers, production designers, and VFX studios. Extensive storyboards are done as part of pre-production workflow.

Yugandhar co-founded Pixelloid Studios in 2005 and was its managing director till 2013, followed by a stint at DQ Entertainment. He now works independently under VFX Nation, taking on two to three films annually and collaborating with studios across India and abroad. “Working solo lets me pick the right teams for the job, not just one studio’s expertise.”

The Academy highlighted his work in Rangasthalam and Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo — both examples of “invisible” VFX. In Rangasthalam, for instance, a scene showing Ram Charan cycling on rough terrain was actually shot with him on a stationary bike, with the environment fully created through VFX. “The road was bumpy and it would have been tough to ensure smooth camera movements, so we opted for visual effects.”

Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo featured over 400 VFX shots, spanning action sequences and minor fixes like removing background wires, and Yugandhar says it was a fairly simple film to work on.

More recently, Yugandhar is proud of his work on Daaku Maharajand Devara – Part One, which featured over 3,000 VFX shots and coordinating with 10 to 15 studios. He credits the respective directors, Bobby Kolli and Koratala Siva, and the cinematography and action choreography teams for their clarity and planning. “The container and underwater sequences were filmed first for Devara, giving VFX teams more time,” he notes.

Now, he is taking a break from VFX to complete writing his script and pursue a long-held dream: directing a superhero film. “Talks are on,” he says with a smile. “I am determined to make it happen.”

Published – July 10, 2025 04:02 pm IST