“My journey into the world of storytelling wasn’t just a career choice; it was more like a destiny I lived out. My father is a dedicated police officer who rose from a constable to an ASI. While he spent his years in service, he has always been a hardcore film buff at heart. To satisfy a family condition for marriage, he worked incredibly hard to crack the exams and secure his place in the police force, but he made sure our home was always a sanctuary for cinema.
Growing up at the Andhra Pradesh Police Academy (APPA), I was a total cinema addict. Whether it was watching movies on the TV at home, heading to the theaters for that big-screen experience, or diving into my collection of DVDs and VCDs, I was constantly surrounded by stories. From Jaws and Titanic to Harry Potter, I wasn’t just watching; I was absorbing different languages and styles of global cinema apart from watching Indian cinema in film theaters.
The definitive moment of my childhood happened right there at the academy, watching Trivikram garu’s Nuvve Nuvve being shot. Seeing a director command the rain to fall and stop at will was pure magic—I realized then that as a director, I wouldn’t just be telling stories; I would be controlling the world.
My mother, an MA in English Literature and a school principal, provided the intellectual depth to match this visual obsession. She nurtured my writing early on, and by the fourth grade, I had already turned that talent into a bit of a “business.” I was the go-to ghostwriter for my seniors in the 10th grade, crafting customized love letters for them at ₹15 to ₹50 a piece. I was a restless student, always grilling my teachers with deep questions about biology and social science until my mother eventually had to take over my education herself. This was where I discovered my true gift for narration; I realized I could take five dry lines from a textbook and spin them into a story so compelling that my friends couldn’t help but listen.
To protect my dream, I began living a double life. I officially enrolled in B.Com Computers at Pulla Reddy College to honor my father’s wish for a secure backup, while secretly joining the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program at JNAFAU. During this time, around 2015-16, I was also very active on Facebook, producing memes and digital content. It was my first real experiment in understanding the audience’s pulse and how things go viral. I maintained a balance at college by sharing movie tickets with my B.Com lecturers to ensure my attendance was marked while I was actually immersed in film labs or on sets. My commitment was so absolute that I even redirected my engineering entrance fees to put up a massive promotional cutout for the release of Attarintiki Daredi.
My professional ascent followed a proper path through the industry. At 16, I started as a technical assistant during the post-production of Kshanam, handling technical outputs to master the digital side of filmmaking. This grit led to my first official role as an Assistant Director on 28°C at age 17, a project that took me from Hyderabad to Georgia and Vizag. Soon after, a chance meeting at a documentary screening landed me an Associate Director role on Ichata Vahanamulu Niluparadu.
As I progressed, life took a sudden detour. A personal setback and a painful breakup forced me to step away from the sets for a while. I sought refuge at my mother’s school, working as a Social Science teacher. This gap was transformative; teaching forced me to rediscover the core of storytelling through the eyes of my students. I eventually returned to the industry with a renewed energy. An initial version of a project for Disney+ Hotstar had been shelved by another team, and I was given the opportunity to rework the entire thing. I poured a lifetime of observation into the script, expanding the vision into a massive 64-episode long-format web series called Batchmates. The entire team did a remarkable job so far, and I am grateful for my directorial debut
The first 4 episodes have already been released to an incredible reception on Jio Hotstar, and we are still actively shooting the rest of the 64-episode journey. Now at 26, I am directing this sprawling narrative across eight different colleges. The success has finally brought a sense of pride and appreciation from my family; seeing them recognize my work after years of navigating a secret path is a feeling that is still sinking in. There is a poetic irony in directing a show that captures the B.Tech experience, considering I took such a non-traditional path specifically to avoid that life.
Looking back from the trending lists on Hotstar to the parade grounds of the police academy, my message remains: a hundred people will have a hundred opinions, but you must follow the one voice that speaks from your heart. Win or lose, the only true success is the satisfaction of doing exactly what you love.”
- Sri Harsha Setty, Filmmaker