Janardhana Maharshi (born 16 May) is an Indian screenwriter, poet, author, producer, novelist, lyricist & film director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema and Kannada cinema. His directorial movies namely "Devasthanam" and "Viswadarshanam" have been screened at many film festivals.

Born in Kandukuru, Prakasham district completed his schooling and higher education in Chittoor. In his college days he acted and written stage plays and published his poems and stories in many famous weeklies. He joined as a Script Assistant to Tanikella Bharani in the year 1989 and assisted him for almost 10 films and later became an independent writer in the year 1993. Right from his childhood he is a great admirer and devotee of the legendary director K. Viswanath. Maharshi proudly says that "My mother used to explain the intricate details of all K. Viswanath films due to which he became my god".

He got his first break as a writer in years 1994 and 1995. His four films namely "One by Two", "Aunty" and "Pekata Papa Rao" ran for 100 days and became very popular story, screenplay, and dialogue writer. His collaboration with directors T. S. B. K. Moulee, and Siva Nageswara Rao got him fame and success.

Later he joined hands with another sensational director E. V. V. Satyanarayana and the duo is an instant hit. The writer and director duo created wonders and was called the most successful combination and continued working together for nearly 25 films.

In 2004, he entered the Kannada film industry and continuously delivered super hit films like "Aakash", "Arasu", "Dattha", "Meravanige", "Kannadadda Kiran Bedi" and so on. He had written 15 films in Kannada and 75 films in Telugu. He also worked closely with directors K. Raghavendra Rao and S.V. Krishna Reddy and delivered great films. He had also written dialogues for the National Award Winning Film Eega.