The young lad who, in his teenage, created his own record label, Madhu Mantena Varma went on to set up Adlabs` International Operations and also head Saregama Films, making him one of the most sought-after entrepreneurs in recent times. He started off by handling the marketing side of his cousin and Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma`s film company Factory, and then went on to set up various companies across the different verticals of the entertainment and media industries.

He co-owns KWAN, a celebrity management company, that then became a joint venture between his company and Creative Artist Agency and is now called CAA KWAN. He also co-founded Offroad Films, an advertising agency, and also is one of the founders of the movie production house Phantom Films, along with Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, and Vikramaditya Motwane.

The successful entrepreneur, producer, and distributor, started his career as a film producer in 2003 with the Telugu movie Karthik, following which he was associated with hit movies such as the 2008 Aamir Khan-starrer Ghajini, Srijit Mukherji`s directorial debut - the Bengali drama Autograph in 2010, and the multilingual biographical political crime thriller Rakta Charitra, starring Vivek Oberoi and directed by Ram Gopal Varma.

After co-founding Phantom Films in 2011, Madhu produced a string of either critically or commercially successful movies such as Lootera, Queen, Ugly, Hunterrr, Masaan, Udta Punjab, Trapped and Super 30.