Bapu is one of the very few truly original filmmakers in the Telugu film industry and is the popular half of the
Bapu-Ramana (Mullapudi Venkata Ramana) pair that made movies that went on to define subtlety in telugu cinema.

The most notable achievement in his movie making is his success in capturing the nativity of Telugu people and translating it great on-screen visuals. Bapu's movies deal with very real familial troubles and relationships and most movies have a recurring theme of magic realism, with sketches of mythological characters aiding in the narration. Bapu treats each of the scenes in his film with lyrical, classical, artistic, and colorful charm. Bapu ‘draws’ every still of a movie to show the artistes how he wants the frame to be.

Most of his movies have a female protagonist and this was and remains a breakaway style from the commercial movies that relegate female lead characters in movies to song and dance numbers. Bapu's preferance for preserving the telugu nativity in his movies can be seen in the choice of artistes, especially the dusky female leads and very un-intimidating villains, which is uncommon in the industry. The pace is relatively slow, the humor spontaneous and innocent and the visuals captivating. Bapu helped unearth great artistes such as Ravu Gopal Rao, or get the best out those such as Rajendra Prasad, Aamani etc.

Apart from telugu movies Bapu also directed a few Hindi Movies such as Hum Paanch, Bezubaan, Pyari Behna, Mohobbat, Mera Dharam, Diljala, Woh Saath Din and Prem Pratigya.