Vishnu Manchu: “I Don’t See Anime as a New Direction, I See It as the Natural Next Chapter”

Having explored Indian mythology on a massive scale with Kannappa, actor and filmmaker Vishnu Manchu believes animation and anime could open a new avenue for taking culturally rooted stories to audiences across the world. In a conversation with JPEX Dubai, Manchu spoke about the creative possibilities of animation and his interest in bringing Indian mythology into the medium.

For Manchu, this is not a departure from the work he has already been pursuing, but a natural progression. “I don’t see it as a new direction, I see it as the natural next chapter of what I have already been building,” he said, reflecting on the years spent bringing Kannappa to the screen. He explained that live-action filmmaking often requires creators to work within the limitations of reality, from weather and budgets to what a camera can physically capture.

Animation, he believes, can offer a different kind of creative freedom. “Animation removes that negotiation,” Manchu said, adding that it gives storytellers the ability to portray devotion, transformation and the divine at the scale the story demands.

He also sees a growing audience for the format in India, pointing to the country’s rapidly expanding anime market as evidence that viewers are increasingly comfortable with the language of animation.

For Manchu, the opportunity is ultimately about combining India’s mythology with a medium that already has global cultural influence. His interest in the space signals a larger ambition: to explore how deeply Indian stories can travel when told through contemporary, visually limitless formats.