Nagesh Kukunoor

Nagesh Kukunoor was born in Hyderabad to Kusuma and Sudarshan. Kukunoor's mother tongue is Telugu, and as a child he loved watching Telugu, Hindi, and English films in the theatres of his neighbourhood, Narayanguda. He studied at Montfort School, Yercaud. Nagesh Kukunoor attended Osmania University in Hyderabad, India and received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States in 1988, and completed his master's degree in environmental engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. After graduating from Georgia Tech, he went to work as an environmental consultant at Trinity Consultants in Texas, then in Atlanta, during which he attended workshops in film. He studied acting and direction at the Warehouse Actor's Theater in Atlanta.He invested the money he made from his engineering career in USA in producing the 1998 movie Hyderabad Blues. It is based on a script that he wrote in Atlanta dealing with Indians returning home from the United States of America. He directed and acted in the movie. It had a budget of Rs. 1.7 million (roughly equivalent to US$40,000) and was shot in 17 days. It was perceived by Sanjay Arora, an independent film maker, to be realistic and one of the first movies to use Hyderabadi Urdu correctly. It became the most successful independent film in India. The film was featured at Peachtree International Film Festival in Atlanta and Rhode Island International Film Festival.