At the UV Creations office in Hyderabad, director Abhilash Reddy pauses mid-rush to talk about his Telugu film Biker, touted as India’s first motocross film. The team is in the final stretch, optimising it for large-format screens — Dolby Vision, PCX, EPIQ and PXL. “When I began working on Biker, soon after my web series Loser, Hyderabad had only one large-format screen. It’s exciting to see how many we have now. We have put significant focus on sound design and colour grading to suit these formats,” he says.
After two seasons of the web series Loser, Abhilash directed the 2024 feature film Maa Nanna Superhero, and is known to gravitate towards stories rooted in sport and familial ties, particularly father figures. “I grew up playing basketball,” he says. “While studying B.Sc. Electronics, I discovered storytelling through short films. My father was incredibly supportive and encouraged me to join Annapurna School of Film and Media.” A self-described middle-class upbringing, and witnessing his father’s struggles, continues to inform his emotional lens.
His breakout series Loser, which followed struggling athletes navigating cricket and badminton, brought him industry attention — eventually leading to actor Sharwanand recommending him to UV Creations.
Sharwanand in ‘Biker’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The idea for Biker took shape with collaborators M.V.S. Bharadwaj and Shrawan Madala, with whom Abhilash worked earlier for Loser. “We had no reference points, there are no mainstream motocross films here, only racing videos on YouTube. But that’s what made it exciting.”
While Indian cinema has featured high-speed biking—think Dhoom or the Tamil film Valimai — off-road dirt biking remains largely unexplored.
The story was sparked by an anecdote narrated by motocross racer friend, Vignesh, from Coimbatore. “It is an incredibly demanding sport — physically and mentally. I began wondering what a rider’s emotional headspace looks like, especially when dealing with personal upheavals.”
Starring Sharwanand, Malvika Nair and Rajasekhar as the father-coach, Biker traces three phases of a rider’s life. Sharwanand underwent a physical transformation for the role. “He was 85-90 kilograms when we began, and worked out to shed weight.”
But filming came with a challenge: helmets obscure expression. Abhilash workaround this to set parts of the film in the 1990s and early 2000s, when half-helmets were common, allowing for visible emotion. The time period also helped showcase the two-stroke bikes and transition to four-stroke vehicles.
Malvika Nair and Sharwanand in ‘Biker’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Shot over 120 days, with over 60 dedicated to biking sequences, the film was largely shot in Indonesia’s Kendari and Sumbawa regions. “We worked with an 80-member crew and hired local riders, while ensuring the terrain matched Coimbatore and Hyderabad for authenticity.”
Safety remained paramount. “A bad fall can end a career,” says Abhilash. Action choreographer Dhilip Subbarayan, who had worked on Valimai, helped design the sequences, consulting riders across Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Kerala.
Cinematographer Yuvaraj’s team used up to eight cameras — including GoPros — for certain sequences, resulting in extensive footage that took nearly two months to edit. Anil Pasala, collaborator since Loser, returned as editor, while sound design was handled by Sync Cinema’s Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan Muralidharan. Abhilash credits production designer Rajeevan Nambiar, composer Ghibran and VFX supervisor RC Kamalakannan for the film’s technical finesse. “Imagine watching 30 bikers on screen at once — the visuals and sound have to be spot on.”
Sharwanand in the film
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Since the teaser and trailer dropped, comparisons to Jersey and even F1 have surfaced — something Abhilash finds both nerve-wracking and flattering. “I am a huge fan of director Gowtam Tinnanuri and loved how he balanced cricket and the emotional drama in Jersey. My film is in a more commercial zone; it has both scale and drama.”
A few private screenings of Biker have elicited positive reactions within the film industry. Biker releases in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam on April 3, with a Hindi version to follow.
“I’m an introvert,” says the 33-year-old Abhilash, almost as an aside. “I do not attend industry parties. It feels good when my work speaks for itself.” His next project is with producer Dil Raju.
Published – March 26, 2026 07:30 am IST