Who is Imanvi? Prabhas’ next co-star in Hanu Raghavapudi’s period film FilmyMeet

Prabhas’ next film with director Hanu Raghavapudi has been officially announced, but all eyes are on the female lead, Iman Esmail, aka Imanvi. The film was launched with a grand pooja ceremony in Hyderabad last week, but one of the biggest surprises was that the director had roped in a new face to play the lead. (Also Read: Prabhas’ historical film with Hanu Raghavapudi to feature Imanvi, Mithun Chakraborty, Jaya Prada)

Who is Imanvi?

Imanvi is a dancer and content creator with 836k Instagram followers and 1.8 million YouTube followers. In 2020, her choreography for the song Ramta Jogi from Taal went viral. In 2023, a video of her dancing to Tum Tum from Enemy also went viral on Instagram, supposedly leading to acting opportunities. She has also collaborated with several famous content creators through the years for her videos.

Where is Imanvi from?

Imanvi is from Los Angeles but was born in India and her family relocated to California when she was young. Matrubhimi reports that she was born on October 20, 1995, in Delhi, and her IMDb page states that her family hails from Karachi, Pakistan. She acted in the short film Being Sa-rah, which details the experience of a Pakistani immigrant. She played the titular character in the film.

How did Imanvi get into dancing?

Taking to dancer Eshani Patel on Pop Shift earlier this year, Imanvi said, “Growing up I wasn’t formally trained (in dancing). But my mom would show me Rekha ji, Madhuri (Dixit) ji, Vyjayanthimala ji, all these evergreen, beautiful actresses, and she’d be like, look at their expressions. Look at how they move and the way they use classical movements in their choreography. I learnt by watching because of her.”

About her silver screen debut

Imanvi will star in a period drama directed by Hanu. Mythri Movie Makers will produce the film. It will also star Mithun Chakraborty and Jaya Prada in key roles.

The official synopsis of the film reads, “Not every historical event resonates with our emotions and thoughts, but this story is written by a warrior to bring justice to people of his Mother Land. This historical fiction/alternate history set in the 1940’s is the tale of a warrior who rose from the shadows, emerging from a society that believed war was the only answer to the buried injustices and forgotten truths that history kept hidden from the world.”