Appalaraju (2011)

Appalaraju is a young man from a village who is sure he has the makings of a great director. He comes to the film industry with a script, a head full of ideas and no connections, and soon learns that a movie is shaped by producers, stars, money and egos as much as by talent. Ram Gopal Varma made the film as a comic satire of Telugu filmmaking, poking fun at its formulas and its people, including himself. Sunil, then moving from comedian to lead roles, plays the hero, with Swati Reddy as the heroine. It is a curiosity in Varma's filmography, a rare full-on comedy from a director known for gangster and horror films.