Tanikella Bharani is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet, playwright and director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked in more than 750 films, including Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi. He has won three Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Awards. Tanikella's ancestry 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-grand-uncle. Tanikella directed the Telugu drama film Mithunam (2012) featuring S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and Lakshmi. Tanikella Bharani received CineMAA Award Special Jury Award for Best Direction for this film.