Sainath Thotapalli (born 27 April 1956) is a well-known writer from the Telugu film industry (also known as Tollywood) and has written for 98 Telugu movies so far including Sitara, Swathimutyam, Swarnakamalam, Swayamkrushi, Sirivennela, Prema, Challenge, Marana Mrudangam, Pavitra Prema and Rakhi among others. He was also long associated with the Mumbai film industry (also known as Bollywood) for movies such as Criminal and Gundagardi.
He worked on Padiappa, Veetilo Viseshamga, Madrasi and Villain for the Chennai film industry (also known as Kollywood). Sainath's contribution to Kannada language films (Years 1995-2000) include the only two films that the ex-chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde acted in – Prajashakthi and Marana Mrudanga. His association with the Kannada film industry has been for 14 Kannada films so far including Halunda Tavaru, Lion Jagapathi Rao among others.