`NATU NATU NAILS IT’ – BAGS FIRST OSCAR FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Today is an historic day for Telugu/Indian cinema, `Natu Natu’ song from RRR becomes the first Indian movie to wins Oscar for `Best original song’.   It’s a `double dhamaka’ for India as `Elephant Whispers’ has won Oscar for best documentary short movie.   Its is a cute movie on relationship between orphan elephant and the kind-hearted who bring them up.  

What worked for Natu Natu

Unlike movies of the rest of the world specially Hollywood, songs and dances are the integral and most attractive part of Indian cinema taking the story telling forward.   With most of the top Telugu stars being good dancers lot of importance is given to songs and are mounted lavishly bettering movie after movie.    The following factors have come together in right proportion to make Natu Natu such a sensation hit and a raze:

i.                     The original and rustic lyrics by Chandra Bose

ii.                   The original and native music by Keeravani.  

iii.                 The energetic singing by young and new singers Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj

iv.                 Fantastic choreography by Prem Rakshith

v.                   Sensational, synchronised and most energetic dancing by Jr. NTR and Ram Charan who looked like mirror image of each other.

vi.                 The importance of the song in the movie, in a way the win over colonial swollen heads and Komaram Bheem with the help of his friend winning the heart of Jenny

vii.                DVV Danayya, the producer of the movie, who liberally opened his cash chest for Rajamouli and giving him complete freedom  

viii.              Kartikeya pushing the idea of the song and Rajmouli conceiving the song the way it came on the screen.  Like in all aspect of his film making, he extracted the best out of his team of Choreographer, actors and not letting anyone go till they delivered what he has in mind.   It was reported that he took some 60 retakes till he got perfect synchronisation by both top stars Jr. NTR and Ram Charan which was really difficult task considering that both the actors had their own different styles of dancing with huge fan base.

The Originality:

Many times we find songs being copied/inspired/adopted from some other song/source whether Indian or Western, classical or hip hop.  But the best part of `Natu Natu’ is that both the lyrics and the music are absolutely original and rooted in Indianness .  Since the heros were to give back the brant Britishers for the insult in trying to throw them out, they had to present an absolute Indian original song with Indian beats.   Chandra Bose and Keeravani have succeeded in doing so.  Few of the words used in the song. 

Natu – Naitivity

Pollamgattu Dummulona – Dust of the fields

Potlagitta – Raging Bull

Poleramma Jataralo -  the village fare of `Poleramma’

Kirruseppu – village foot ware which makes creaking sound 

Karrasamu – Stick fight

Errajonna rotte – Bread made of maize

 

The entire song goes on in the same lines.   These rustic and earthy lyrics was supported by fantastic music which starts slowly and builds up tempo to final climax without using any western or modern beats.  

The long journey to Oscars

It may not be a walk in the park for Natu Natu but the huge hype created for the last 3 months or so specially in US made things easy for it.    The rousing reception the song got in US theatres with people dancing on the stage in theatres as has been done in single screen theatres in Telugu States, the song winning Golden Globe award and many more American Critics’ Awards all worked in its favour.   Even when the song was announced and performed by the singers and US dancers at the awards function it got a standing ovation which is not so common.

The Royal Snub by I&B Ministry

The passage of Natu Natu to Oscar was anything but smooth and almost a nonstarter.  At the cost of being blamed for triggering regional divide, as always happens I&B Ministry didn’t have a real hard look at the southern movies when it comes to Padma Award or sending it to Oscars.    Despite stupendous success neither Bahubali nor RRR were sent to Oscars as official entries in any category.    Both movies deserved to be the official Indian entry in the categories for Best movie, Best Director, Best visual effects beside Best Original Song for Natu Natu in RRR.   The I&B Ministry has given a royal snub to RRR.  But once the Oscar is won everyone including I&B Minister and PM is jumping into congratulate the RRR to make India proud which their Ministry almost denied.   They should first bother to check what is wrong with I&B Ministry.  

Anyone in the position of Rajamouli would have felt disappointed and let it go.   But the team of Rajaouli and his talented son Kartikeeya who was the line producer of RRR did not get disheartened and started to work their way to Oscars.   First, they applied in `for your consideration in general category’ Then they organised the screening of RRR in Oscar approved theatres and simultaneously created the right kind of buzz through TV chat shows in various American Channels and interacting with audience in theatres by the Director Rajamouli, two leading stars Jr NTR and Ram Charan who camped for a long time in US despite their busy schedules.  They spent huge amount of time, efforts and money to promote not only their movie and song but brand India.   

As a prelude to Oscars Natu Natu which faced the toughest competition from top stars like lady Gaga has created history by winning Golden Globe Award for Best Original song.    This has made the RRR team feel that they are in with a very good chance to win Oscar and then came the good news of its being nominated for Oscars.   Thus Natu Natu has become the first Indian entry to make it to nomination stage coming through `for your consideration general category’ and ultimately won the Oscar, - first in the 80 years history of Telugu film industry.   In a way it is a tight slap on the face of Committee of Duds appointed by I&B Ministry who did everything to ensure that India would not have got Oscars.

M M Keeravani : It is ultimate glory to the highly talented and sober Telugu music director MM Keeravani.   Though he is not as prolific as other leading music directors in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi in which he scores music with different names `Marakathamani’ and `MM Kreem’, his music has always been unique, special and original.   Besides tunes for the songs, his Background Music has always been outstanding.    It is taken to dizzy heights first in Bahabali I & II and then RRR.   Many of the larger than life scenes of Bahubali were brought to life by the fabulous back ground score of  Keeravani,    I always had the feeling that it is music directors like Keeravani and Illayaraja (another hugely talented music director and my all-time favourite) who could bring international laurels to India.

Rajamouli’s Magic

Anything said in the praise of Rajamouli becomes repetitive but in this moment of glory I cannot help but salute this unparallel talent called Rajamouli.    First he broke industrial records in Telugu taking movies to such massive and unbelievable heights movie after movie starting from Magadheera.   His spending large time with his father on building the story, conceiving each and every frame, constructing massive sets, extensive use of special effects and spending highly disproportionate time on postproduction to bring out a product never seen before in India cinema.    The Telugu market being small (not more than Rs. 100 crores at the max during pre-Bahubali era) he set his eyes on an unprecedented PAN India release of Telugu movie and had producers backing and came out with historic and record breaking Bahubali franchise.    While Bahubali became a sensational PAN India blockbuster, with RRR he built a Global brand and market for Telugu/Indian movies.   Apart from winning many critics’ awards as director of RRR, he got special praise from top Hollywood big wigs including Spielberg and Cameron who indicated their interest to collaborate with him.    Now any movie which he makes hereafter will not only be a PAN India movie but a global movie.    He has already announced his next venture with Telugu heart throb Mahesh Babu, a jungle action adventure which suits international audience.    With that I am sure that Rajamouli is going to do another first – The First Telugu/Indian Global movie.  

Till then let us celebrate the success of Natu Natu and keep grooving to the wonderful tune while I&B Ministry figures out why their team could not see what the world could see and appreciate so generously. 

A Big Thanks to Keeravani and Rajamouli for not only producing such a sensational song Natu Natu but for all the special efforts made in promoting the song and brand India .   

 

S. Prabhakar

13.3.2023

Shankarabharanam creator K Vishwanath’s Sivakyam

2^nd February, 2023 is one of the saddest days for Telugu movies goers when one of the greatest sons of `Telugu kalamataalli’ Writer, Director and Actor K Vishwanatnath passed away after a long and fulfilling life of 92 years.    He achieved everything what one could imagine and much beyond and called it a day graceful and left the world peacefully without much  of pain leaving behind legacy of masterpieces which will be referred to by generations to come.  

One of the Greatest :  K Vishwanath is unarguably one of the greatest Directors Telugu cinema and Indian cinema has produced.   Many people follow a trend and succeed, few create a trend which others follow but the greatness of K Vishwanth lies in the fact that he created a trend which no other could follow either his contemporaries or Director who came to the industry much later.  He only had that conviction and competence not to follow the trend and express helplessness and blame the audience for their poor tastes.  He stood out to create a new trend lapped up by the audience during same period when decay has started.     In 70s and 80s when action movies full of violence and vulgarity were at their peak and used to struggle to get censor board certificates even with huge cuts (Sholay and Quarbani to name a few) K Vishwanath has made movies in dozens with central themes of classical singers, classical dancers and other performance artists, women oriented movies and many socially relevant subjects.   Most of the movies were made at shoestring budgets but turned out to be not only super hit commercially but won many state and national awards for him, actors, singers, music directors and other technicians.  

The following facts will make him stand towering over many of the run of the mill Directors and he does not have peers in this respect.

·        Most of his movies did not have an action director, action scenes or murders or killings.

·       No club dances/items number in any of his movies

·      Whether it is a Telugu movie or Hindi movie released in 80s and 90s also, his heroin always wore Sarees, put big bindis, bangles and other ornaments.   Who says cine goers did not have taste?

·      None of his movie were made on a huge budget, no big sets, no shoot in foreign locales, no special effects

·     Most of the songs of his movies were based on classical ragas and none had any disco music or pop songs

·    Almost of all movies have social relevant topics like untouchability, plight of classical singers, dancers, musicians, specially challenged people like blind, dumb etc.    Any other producers and director would have been scared on thought of making a movie on such subjects and K Vishwanath has made movie after movie on these subjects.

·      In all his movies the hero, heroin and leading actors are absolutely normal and the like we find next door and mostly deglamourized.   Its is true not only to newcomers, and small actors but to the top stars like Chiranjeevi, Kamal Hassain, Mamoothy, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jaya Prada, Vijaya Shanti and Bhanu Priya

The following additional information will show how much conviction he had in the subjects he chose, his commitment in sticking to the central theme without any commercial compromises and pulling out super hits movie after movie:

1.     Sirisiri Muvva (later remade in Hindi as Sargam) : Heroin is a dumb daner

2.     Shankarabharanam : the story of a classical singer who struggles to uphold the glory of classical music diminishing in popularity under the influence of western music

3.    Sagara Sangamam : The story of an young talent classical dancer who is denied his well deserved recognition turns alcoholic and gets recognition while on death bed

4.    Srutilayalu : the story of classical singer who wants to set up a Music school and his own sons trained in classical music but commercialise their talent to become rich.

5.    Saptapadi : Untouchability and story of a temple priest getting his daughter in law remarried to an untouchable whom she loves before her marriage to his son.

6.   Swarna Kamalam : Story of poor plight of classical dancer and artist and his daughter of  disliking classical dance seeing his poor financial status

7.       Swati mutyam (remade in Hindi as Eeswar) : story of a mentally challenged adult taken care of a lady

8.       Sirivennela : story of a blind flutist.    Hari Prasad Chaurasia played plute for this movie

9.       Swayamkrushi : story of rags to riches of a cobbler who believes in hard work

10.   Swatikiranam : story of a classical singer suffering from inferiority complex with a child prodigy forcing him to commit suicide

These are few of the examples of how K Vishwanath chartered a path very successfully which no other director could ever follow and preferred to churn masala commercial movies.  

Early career : Like many film personalities,  K Vishwanath too had a very modest beginning.   He started his career as Assistant Director of iconic Telugu movie Patala Bhairavi.   For some strange reasons, despite the stupendous success and cult status of Patala Bhairavi, K Vishwanath, stayed away from Direction for over 14 years and focused on being sound recordist.   He debuted as Director in 1965 with ANR starrer Gauravam, which was not only a huge commercial success but won Nandi award for best Telugu movie of that year.    Between 1965 and 1980 he made many successful women-oriented movies like Chelleli Kapuram, Kalam Marindi Sharada, Jeevana Jyoti etc.  All these four movies apart from being commercially successful won Nandi awards.  

The Stupendously successful Shankarabharanam :  When we talk about K Vishwanath career or Telugu cinema we refer to two eras – the Pre Shankarabharanam and post Shankarabharanam.   Written and directed by K Vishwanath, the movie shows the plight of a famous classical singer’s desperate effort to save classical music from being swept away by the influence of Western music on youth.    As if taking a huge risk of picking up such subject for a full length movie is not enough, after considering top stars like A Nageswara Rao and Shivaji Ganesan, he zeroed on J Somayajulu, who was serving as a Government servant and debuted with the movie.   It was K Vishwanath talent in spotting talent and carving them which brought best out of J Somayajulu to make every cine goer felt that he was born for that role and no one else could suit better than him.   Though he was tad unluckly to miss national award by whisker, his performance was rated by Forbes as 25 greatest performance of India cinema.   Not only J Somayajulu every actor who acted in the movie were small time actors and when it was released without much fan fare after initial uncertainty it hit like tsunami not only in Andhra Pradesh but all over India specially Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.   It has been screened in various international film festivals and won awards.   In poll conducted by CNN IBN Shankarabharanam came eleventh in greatest Indian films.    It has won 4 national awards and 7 state Nandi awards.   It was the first PAN India movie which word we started listening post Bahubali.   Understandably it has become a successful formula which though none of his peers in any language could follow, but he belted over a dozen successful movies in similar themes in the next 15 years which can be referred to be the Golden Era of Vishawanatham.

Director the captain of the ship :  One of the greatest services done by K Vishwanath was bringing back the glory to Director.    After greats likes B N Reddy in 1950s, its during Viswanath era movies started to be referred and sold with name of Director.   This legacy was taken ahead by his contemporary Director Bapu and Raghavendra Rao, Dasari and now Rajamouli who followed him.  Producers, any actor of any standing like Chiranjeevi and Kamal hassain had so much faith in his conviction on a subject of a movie they used to surrender themselves.    Every actor used to consider it an honour to work in a movie directed by K Vishwanath and never bothered about their image in commercial movies while working with him in off beat low budget movies.   As can be expected, for all these top stars the movie they acted under his direction remained landmark movies in their career.   But K Vishwanath never signed any actor who has not suited the character he conceived.    He never banked on the star power to pull his movie though he directed all tops star viz., NTR, ANR, Krishna, Shoban Babu, Chiranjeevi, Kamal Hassain, Venkatesh, Mamoothy, Anil Kaoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jayaprada, and Vijayashanti .    Whether giving break to old and pot-bellied J Somayajulu in Shankarabharanam or signing up an unknown Bannerjee in Sirivennela, debutants Ravi shankar and Ravikanth in Saptapadi he always went for those who suit the role.  

Another best quality of K Vishwanath was apart from the leading actor assaying the main roles, all other support actors used to have definite roles and he extracted best out of them.   His direction and conceiving of the roles used to be so impactful that many actors who had even 5 minutes roles are remembered after many years – Whether it is Alluri Ramalingayya and Sakshi Ranga Rao in Shankarabharanam, Mitra in Swarna kamalam in 5 minutes role as a Government officer who insults a scholar, or the young boy who takes photos of Kamal Hassain in Sagara Sangamam.

Hands on Director: Every actor who has worked with K Vishwanath vouch that he is a hands-on director.    He used to conceive entire scene to be shot and not only explains to the actors but act and show it to actors.   Many actors used to get amused that if in a scene there is a lead actor, actress and comedian he used to act the part of all 3 and show and never leave till actor delivered the way he conceived the scene.  

Great Human being : K Vishwanath was known to treat not only the leading actors but everyone on the sets with lot of respect and affection.    There was a time when all the support staff on the floor other than actors were required to wear khakhi dress.   Only producer and director were exempted from this requirement.    But K Vishwanath, to make every technician to treat him as one among them and to ensure that arrogancy of being Director and captain of the ship does not go to his head, he always wore Khakhi dress while on the floor for shooting.  

Ear for Music : Being trained and worked for over 14 years as a sound recordist, K Vishwanath has a fantastic ear for music.   In almost all the 52 movies he directed the music and songs were super hit and were the life line of the movies and contributed a lion’s share in the success of his movies, specially after Shankarabharanam.   First he used to sit with the lyricist like Veturi, Seetarama Shastry and others and get fantastic lyrics written and then sit with music directors and singers for hours together till he got what he wanted.   With Shankaranabharanam, K Vishwanath has given a new lease of life to S P Balasubramaian.   By his own admission SPB was not sure of his ability to sing purely classical based song and requested him to take Yesudas or Ramakrishna who had strong classical background.   But K Vishwanath had more faith on SPB than SPB had on himself and trained him under Puhalendi (assistant to music director KV Mahadevan) and made him sing all the songs and as they say rest is history.   Not only songs of Shankarabharanam became sensational hits but SPB has won National award for the song of the movie.   Dozen movies after Shankarabharanam directed by K Vishwanath were sensational music hits.   For most of his movies music was scored by his favourite music director K V Mahadevan, after his death he collaborated with Illayaraja for Sagara Sangamam and Swati mutyam and then with Keeravani.

Foray into Hindi industry : Besides 42 Telugu movies, K Vishwanath has directed 10 movies most of them remake of his successful Telugu movies.   Out of Hindi movies directed by him Sargam, Kaamchor, Shubkamna and Eeswar were popular and hit movies.   

Awards galore: K Vishwanath has won national award 5 times Nandi award 7 times, Filmfare award 10 times in Telugu and once in Hindi.   He was conferred Padmashir and Dada Sahedb Phalke award, and Raghupati Venkayya award.    He also won international awards – Prize of Public at Film Festival, France and special mention at Moscow International film festival.

Apart from K Vishwanath, many who worked with him in his movies also won many prestigious awards.  Some of the national awards won:

Vani Jairam – won 2 national awards for Shankarabharanam and Swati Kiranam

SPB - won 2 national awards for Shankarabharanam and Sagara Sangamam

Illayaraja - won 1 national award for Sagara Sangamam

KV Mahadevan - won 1 national award for Shankarabharanam

Edida Nageswara Rao - won 1 national award for Shankarabharanam

 

Besides this many have won State awards and film fare awards.

Withstood caste discrimination: Howsoever people may deny, the Telugu industry is rife with caste politics by Kammas and Reddys earlier and Kapus later.    Others in the industry belonging to other castes specially Brahmins were looked down upon, supressed and not allowed to come up.    They and their talents and command over language were used only for story writing, lyrics and dialogues.   K Vishwanath has not only withstood the discrimination but also encouraged Brahimin artists and maintained excellent relations with all others.    S P Balasubramaian and Chandramohan (both his cousins), and many artists, lyricist got great support from K Vishwsanath.  K Vishwanath's greatest gift to Telugu industry has been two gems of lyricists Veturi Sundararama murthy and Sirivennala Seetarama Shastry   

Commanded respect:  One of the best qualities of K Vishwanath is that though he was in the film industry for over 60 years he stayed away from any controversies and commanded respect from actors, producers, fellow directors, music directors, lyricists and singers.  It was not only during  his prime as director but till he breathed his last.   Not only top actors like Chirajeevi who are in Hyderabad used to visit his house frequently specially on his Birthdays, but actors like Kamal and Anil Kapoor used to make it a point to visit and take his blessings whenever they used to come to Hyderabad.   Politicians across all parties including both CMs KCR and Jagan used to visit his house and felicitate him.  

My Father favourite: K Vishwanath is a favourite of our entire family, Even our father who was not a big-time movie buff used to like him and his movies and when he retired in 1990 we purchased dozen video cassettes of all Vishwanath movies and he used to watch them often including Shankarabharanam and Sagara Sangamam   

K Vishwanath has stopped directing for somewhere around 2000 and for next 10 years and assigned some memorable roles including Shuba Sankalpam.  It is a sheer coincidence that the movie which brought fame Shankarabharanam was released on 2nd February, 1980 and he died on the 40th Anniversary of its relase on 2nd February 2023.  The contribution of K Vishwanath to Telugu and Indian film industry is enormous and path breaking.    There is no parallel to him in providing clean and whole some entertainment.   As long as film industry is there, K Vishwanath name will live on.  

I strongly feel Government of India or atleast the Telugu State Governments should constitute an award for best direction in the name of K Vishwanath.  

Om Shanti

S. Prabhakar

3.2.2023

 

 

Natu Natu – song from RRR has put an Indian movie song on World stage.  

What a great achievement - a Telugu song full of rustic rural lyrics, original tune, full of energy and rhythm has won Golden Globe award for Best original song award facing tough competition from top international stars like Lady Gaga, Rihana and Taylor Swift.  Not only the first Indian but first Asian movie song to win this honours a proud movement for Telugu and Indian film industry.

Hearty congratulations to brothers Keeravani and Rajamouli, lyricist Charabose, singers Rahul Sipliganj and Kala Bhairava.   A Special appreciation to Prem Rakshit for fantastic choreography and Ram Charan and Jr. NTR for their most energetic and synchronized dancing.   The way the song with dance has shaped up and come on the screen has helped the song to become so popular globally and stake claims at Golden globe and Oscars.   It is very common in Telugu states for frenzy audience to get up on seats, throw colour papers, currency notes and move towards the screen and dance when such song and dance sequences come on the screen.   But watching audience doing so and get on the stage and dancing to ‘Natu Natu’ number is a unique and unusual experience.   RRR broke record on Netflix by being on the top of charts for 15 weeks consecutively.   Though released in USA, UK Europe and Japan much after release by Netflix on OTT, the movie is still going very strong at box office.   The US media and critics have given very wide and positive coverage to RRR and it proved to be a real cross over movie beyond both Telugu states not only in India but all across the Globe.

Keeravani : Keeravani is one of the most talented and original Telugu music directors.   He scores music in Hindi movies with the name of Kreem and Maragatamani in Tamil. The specialty of Keeravani is that in every song each note comes out very clearly and it is never sound and fury.   His Telusamanasa/Tum mile dil khile from Criminal, Jamuratri jabilamma from Khanam Khanam, Awarapan Banjarapan from Jism, Pachabottesina from Bahubali and all songs of Anamayya and many more songs showcase his talent.    Apart from music for the songs, he is specialized in giving fantastic background score. He has taken background score to dizzy heights in movies like Maghadheera, Bahubali 1&2 and RRR and the contribution of background score is at par with the computer graphics and special effects in creating out of the world experience.   As explained by Rajamouli he goes to the heart of the emotion of the scene and start working on the background score and take lot of time and efforts in coming out with the best.

Right from Magadheera, Eega, Bahubali to RRR Rajamouli is raising the bar which no other Indian director could match.   With these movies not only Rajamouli got Telugu movies recognition all over India by grossing highest box office collections but started PAN India culture for regional movies which hitherto was the bastion of Hindi movies.   With the success of RRR and his next venture with top Telugu star Mahesh babu with a whopping budget of around Rs. 1000 crores he can surely rub shoulders with top Hollywood directors.

Rajmouli realised NTR (sr) dream:

I am very happy that today Rajamouli has realized NTR dream.    NTR at peak of his career when he was essaying wide variety of roles viz., mythological, folklore, historical, social and action movies he felt constrained by the limited market of Telugu movies in the then united Andhra Pradesh.   He   used to say that Telugu movies, actors, technicians, directors and music directors deserve so much recognition at national and international level which was not forthcoming.   Great actors like NTR, SVR, Savitri, directors like BN Reddy, Dasari, Ragavendra Rao, music directors like S Rajeswara Rao, Ramesh Naidu, gifted and divine singers like Ghantasala and P Susheela could not get the recognition they deserved even at an all-India level not to speak at international level.  

Suppression by Bollywood

There is no denying of the fact that for decades regional cinema spcially south Indian and Telugu movies have been suppressed by Bollywood and for Bollywood and I&B Ministry of Government of India cinema means Hindi cinema and nothing beyond it.    When International Indian Film Academy Awards was constituted, it was given only to Hindi movies and Hindi filmy personalities as if the regional cinema is not part of India film industry.  South India cinema has come together as set up their own award SIMA to counter that move.   For getting any recognition or awards from the Government the regional cinema personalities have to put ten times more efforts than a Hindi filmi personality.   Chiranjeevi has shared many times how humiliated he felt that at a national awards function in Delhi which he attended to receive an award for his movie `Rudra Veena, he found photos of many Hindi stars like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar etc., put up in the hall and not even a single photo of Telugu stars NTR & ANR who acted in more than 350 and 300 movies respectively, Malayalee actor Prem Nazir who acted over 650 movies, Shijavi Ganesa and Savitri, the greatest actress of Indian cinema was put up.  

 

A cursory glance at the below mentioned film personalities from south who were denied their well-deserved recognition will expose how deep the malice is.

NTR – acted in over 350 movies over 45 years (till he left the industry on his own to enter politics) essaying such wide variety of movies like Mythological, folklore, historical, social and action movies.   Only conferred Padmashri.   If there is one film personality who deserves Bharat Ratna, its NTR

SVR – greatest character actor and villain who acted in Telugu and Tamil movies.   First Indian actor to win an international award for his role in Telugu movie Nartanasala in Jakarta International film festival.   Not even conferred Padmashri.  

Savitri – the greatest actress India has ever produced.   Highest paid Indian actress in her hay days even more than Hindi actress of those days like Nargis Meena Kr etc.  Used to have more significant roles than NTR, ANR, MGR & Shivaji.   Not even conferred Padmashri

Vijayanirmala – a Telugu actress who has acted in over 200 movies and directed a world record number of 48 movies by a female director.   Not even conferred Padmashri.

Dasari Narayana Rao – a Telugu actor, producer, director, editor, lyricist, story and screenplay writer.   He directed a world record number of over 150 movies and not even conferred Padmashri

Raghavendra Rao – extremely successful and popular director who directed over 100 movies with over 90% box office successes - Not even conferred Padmashri

K Satyanaryana: - a Telugu Character actor, villain and comedian who has acted in over 750 movies in over 65 years of film career and not even conferred Padmashri

And the list goes on ……………

It is even difficult to imagine any Hindi actor, actress, director or producer with such longevity in the highly competitive cine fields with such trail blazing career in terms and quantity and quality and popularity.    Compared to the above, extremely ordinary performers with pedestrian credentials (acted hardly in less than 25 to 50 run of the mill movies) in a span of 10 to 15 years in Hindi film industry were given Padma awards and Dadasaheb Pakle award.  Sail Ali Khan, Kangana, Asha Parekh, Vidya Balan are few of the many examples.  

Overcoming adversary

But the Telugu and south Indian industry has never bogged down by the cold shouldering by the Bollywood and kept on its good work and keep raising the bar.   Thanks to Pandemic, the Indians have discovered the worth, talent and range of South Indian movies and got into habit of watching a quality and entertaining movie whichever language it may be coming from.  This has thoroughly exposed the Bollywood mediocracy and in the last 4-5 years it is feeling the heat from regional movies and completely lost its ground and market.  Hindi producers and actors are scared to release their movie around release of a south India top star movie as many south Indian movies made much higher box office collections in the Hindi heart land than Hindi movies. Top producers like Karan Johar are too happy distributing South India movies like Robo and Bahubali.  A look at 2022 box collections will show how south Indian movies have left Hindi movies far behind.

KGF-2      - 1275 crores

RRR         - 1272 crores

Vikram   -    480 crires

Kantara   -  400 crores

Pushpa 2 – 380 crores

Today Telugu and South Indian movies do not crave for any recognition from Bollywood the world is its stage.   Actors like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu are most sought-after actors and command anything around Rs. 80 to 100 crores per movie, producers queue up before directors like Raja Mouli and Shankar.   With PAN India market and good share from overseas market, the budget of Telugu and Tamil movies are going through the roof and every movie with a top star is planned at not less than 400 to 500 crores with confidence to mop up around Rs. 800 crores.   Moreover, unlike Bollywood for the financing of the movie they need to bank on sources across the border who control every aspect of film making.  The big size landlords and businessmen pump in large amounts into film production in Telugu industry and hence producers and director have freedom to make movies as per their conviction.    Earlier small time heroins and villains from Hindi cinema used to run after south Indian directors and now all top Bollywood actors are looking to get into one frame with Rajamouli and Shankar how so ever small the role may be.  OTTs are bombarded by South Indian movies and are the first choice of movie buff and the going is never so good for South Indian industry.  But other regional cinema viz., Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamee and Bhojpuri could not lift themselves and progress the way South India industry has done.   

It’s a shame that RRR was not shortlisted by Indian Government for Oscars but you find the I&B Minister thumping chest on RRR song winning Golden Globe.   Thanks to the efforts made by the producers, Rajamouli and leading actors who camped in US and gave a push and great momentum and made sure that it figures in eligibility list of Oscars in few categories.    Winning of Golden Globe award augurs well for RRR and gaining nomination and win Oscars.   Winning Oscars will be icing on the cake.     I wish good luck for the RRR team.

Hope it works as a wake-up alarm to the Government and Bollywood and they start treating all movies of all language equally

S. Prabhakar

12.1.23

 

Mat Pee, Mat Pee….Peeke `Pee’ mat kar

(The Air India `Pee Gate’)

So much is written, said and shared about this horrible and condemnable incident of an Air India passenger urinating on a fellow passenger an old lady of 70 years.  He is named shamed, hunted down and sent to Judicial custody.  As reported, he consumed alcohol in large quantities and no one including him would have done that shameful act unless he is heavily inebriated.

Traumatization to the elderly lady: I feel so bad for the elder lady of 70 years who has been put to such humiliating and traumatising situation without any fault on her part.   Someone unzipping himself and urinating on is the least one could expect to happen in an international flight.    Taking the incident lightly and casually the cabin crew had made her sit on the same seat after change of dress.   The least they could have done is to make her sit in another seat even if that required to upgrade her to business class when it was reported that they were few vacant seats.    As if this is not enough, in a bit to cover up the Air India crew has falsely propagated that there was an understanding between her and the accused and they let the passenger go scot-free.

 Failure by many on many fronts:

a)      Air India crew: The biggest failure in this entire episode is that of Air India cabin crew and the pilots.   First, they have served the accused lot of liquor, he was reported to have taken 4 pegs before lunch itself and no one sure how many more pegs has he downed before that ugly incident.   When the incident was reported by the lady to the cabin crew, they took it very casually and lightly.    Neither they confronted the accused, nor reported the matter to the commander of the flight and made sure that some appropriate action is taken against the accused.   No action seems to have been taken to isolate him, report the matter to the airport authorities of destination airport and hand over the accused to the airport security/police and get him arrested.   As if this is not enough, she was made to sit on the same seat after giving cloths to change. The crew which has lady members were so unmindful how discomfortable it will be for a lady to continue to sit on the same seat without any words of comfort.    Another shocker is that when the lady wanted to lodge a complaint, she was given a piece of paper to write down her complaint and hand it over.   It is surprising that Air India does not have compliant register with serial number and does not give a copy of the compliant to the complainant.   In the absence of it the cabin crew may any time deny any complaint being lodged with them and refuse to take any action.

     The commander of the flight is responsible for safety of all passengers and vested with full powers to take any action on any passenger not conducting himself well with cabin crew and fellow passengers.   In this incident though the matter was reported to commander of the flight he did not take any action to isolate the accused or report the matter to the airport authorities and gone by the version of cabin crew that there is an understanding between the lady and the accused.

b)     Co passengers:  The behaviour of co passengers of not coming to her rescue either during or after the incident is equally shocking.   It is quite unlikely that none of the fellow passengers specially those sitting in the row and couple of rows on either side not observing it, but they did not push him or pin him down.   When such things happen in any public place, unfortunately, the people around look on the other side and behave as if it does not concern them.    I expected the fellow passengers to protest until the cabin crew initiated some action against the accused. 

c)     Air India top management: The worst culprit in this entire episode is Air India top management, now owned by TATA group.   Firstly, they have not trained their cabin crew and pilots how to react in such circumstances and then the massive efforts to cover up for over 5 weeks till it was exposed by media.   They have not reported the matter to DGCA and not filed FIR with police.     How a top industrial house like TATAs can be so ill advised by their legal team and did not realise that the acts done by the accused falls squarely under sexual harassment, indecent behaviour with a female in full public view and causing mental trauma to an elderly lady and there cannot be any arrangement or comprise in a criminal case.  It was their duty to file a complaint with the police to get FIR registered and let the police investigate.   Despite the fact the lady has reported to have filed a complaint in the portal of Air India, they held for a long time after media exposure that there was an understanding between the lady and the accused, and they let the accused go on that basis.   It is only after anger and outrange by the public and huge pressure mounted by the media that the CEO of Air India has condemned the incident and put cabin crew and pilots under de roaster.  TATA group brand has taken a huge beating with this incident, and it is unfortunate that TATA group is behaving like any unprofessional outfit.

d)   DGCA & Ministry of Civil Aviation: For some strange reasons DGCA, the most spineless regulator we have in India, always bends its back to accommodate the private airlines and let them have their way squeezing the hapless airlines passengers and putting them to all sorts of inconveniences.   Unlike other regulators we hardly find DGCA taking any stringent actions against the airlines, penalising the erring airlines or suspending their operations which will pinch them to make them mend their ways.   Even in this episode DGCA and Ministry of Civil Aviation are the last to swing into action after massive exposure by media.  

The Uncontrolled drinking habit: 

 It has been almost half a century that I have been advising my dear friends and colleagues to an extent of pestering and irritating them not to drink in public places and not be in the company of those who keep pushing them to have a drink or two (or many more) pegs than what they can handle.  But as can be expected they hardly heed.  The worst part is that they don't get drunk (which word they neither accept or like to be used for them) in their home or small parties of close relatives or friends but in full public view in marriages on public roads in Car-O-bars behind baraat processions in places like Delhi, office parties before junior colleagues and female colleagues.  In marriage we are invited to solemnise a pious occasion and the least one expects is not to get intoxicated and similarly when you are in an office party before junior colleagues and female colleagues, one is expected to be at one’s sober best and when one is intoxicated, he can be expected to be anything but sober.    The best (or worst part) is that howsoever one is drunk and gone much beyond control of his/her physical and mental faculties, they always feel and say that they are under control.  With their tired looks n weird behavior all people specially females around them feel the discomfort and they do what best they can - avoid them.  I am witness to many incidents where highly educated well placed, very cultured and respected persons behaving in most ridiculous manner in parties specially in marriage parties under influence of alcohol bringing shame to themselves and their family members.  A time comes when they try to justify their behavior saying that they had couple of pegs more as if their behavior is acceptable on extending this excuse.  It's not uncommon in India that many males drive vehicles after consuming good amount of alcohol which makes driving highly risky for them as well as for others.  I never could understand people who are well off to maintain a SUV and who cannot abstain from drinking engage driver for a day or hire a cab to avoid putting themselves and innocent people on the road to risk of serious accidents.  Lack of strict laws mandating compulsory arrest for few years and cancelation of license for life and lack of strict enforcement of law are root cause of this menace.   The over confidence about their control after downing few pegs, no fear of law or their ability to fix cops become a heady cock tail.   I always wonder why people should go through all these hassles and run the risk of being putting themselves in embarrassing situations when there is no restriction on their consuming alcohol in their home

In this episode Mishra is holding a very senior position in an American MNC and was travelling in business class on an international flight.   What was the need for him to consume alcohol and that too over 4 pegs to an extent of losing complete control over himself and end up doing such a shameful act.    One act of indiscretion his word has come crashing down.    Now he has been arrested and booked under various sections of IPC, his employer has sacked him and issued a public notice of the same.    He may end up serving few years jail sentence, may find it very difficult to get a job or visa to America or any other countries.    Every person is condemning his behaviour and no one has any sympathy for him and he deserve none.  Now he and his clever lawyers are trying to pass it off as act done by a person under intoxicated condition, as if it is less of a crime  to first get intoxicated and then do such criminal acts.    Earlier we have seen an ugly scene where star comedian has insulted his fellow comedian Sunil Grover in an international flight under inebriated condition.   Though matter remained between them, Sunil Grover has walked out of the comedy show and the comedy show took a beating in TRP ratings and could never regain its past glory after the exit of Sunil Grover though many comedians were tried out as his replacement.    

Hope this unfortunate incident serves as a warning to all those who don’t think twice before getting intoxicated in public to introspect and abstain from drinking in public.  

 

S. Prabhakar

7.1.2022

 

K SATYANARAYANA – THE LEGENDARY TELUGU CHARACTER ACTOR PASSES AWAY

Satyanarayana, unarguably one of the best and versatile character actor, villain, and comedian villain, passed away at the ripe age of 87 years.   With him the golden chapter of senior male actors of Telugu industry belonging to 50s and 60s has come to an end.

The early years:  Satyanarayana has debuted in 1959 in Sipai Kuturu in a supporting role.    He got instant recognition and got immensely benefited for his striking resemblance with N T Rama Rao – his height weight sharp nose.   From then onwards in many movies Satyanarayana acted as a double of NTR in movies in which NTR had dual role and both roles had to be shown in one frame.

                                                                                                        

His journey as a Villain:  Though he did not succeed as a hero and in characters with good shades as there was huge competition from Nagayya and Gummadi, he has quickly settled in character with negative shades.   In the beginning he used to play as a side kick or second fiddle to top villains like S V Ranga Rao, Rajanala, R Nageswara Rao, in Janapada movies.   After establishing as a villain in janapada, mythological and historical movies, he also branched into as a lead villain in social movies and crime thrillers of Krishna.   With a tall and hefty figure with broad face he used to carry the role of villain very well.

The Turning Point in the career:  The biggest turning point in the career of Satyanarayana came on the untimely death of legendary actor S V Ranga Rao in his early 50s.  A huge vacuum was created on his sudden death as he used to carry any movie single handedly whosoever was the hero whether NTR or ANR Krishna or Shoban Babu.   SVR was such a colossal actor that no one could be compared with his towering performance and can fill in his giant steps.    But among all other actors if there was someone who could come closer to it and thought as an alternative in that desperate situation it was Satyanarayana.    He was signed up for many of the movies remained unfinished by SVR.   In the initial stages he used to imitate SVR heavily specially in mythological movies, to the point of being irritating but within few years he came out of the shadow of SVR and developed his own style, modulation, dialogue delivery and body language with some traces of SVR.    So from mid 70s there was no looking back in his career.

Proved to be versatile: Though no Telugu/India actor can be compared with versatility of NTR and SVR, but Satyanarayana molded his career in the same way and at the end of the career he proved to be very versatile actor carrying himself with equal ease in Social, Mythological, Historical, Janapad, and action movies in vide range of character as a Villain, Comedian, villain-comedian and character actor as father, brother, father in law and grandfather.   Though never acted as a hero, after NTR and ANR, Satyanarayana had the longest career of over 60 years acted in over 750 movies.    Apart from acting he produced and directed few movies and represented TDP as MP for one term.   

Ajat Shatru:  One of the best quality of Satyanarayana hailed by all is his ability to get on well with co actors and all camps.  Telugu industry was divided among NTR and ANR camps, Krishna and Shobanbabu camps, Balakrishna and Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh camps apart from camps on the basis of caste like Kamma, Reddy and Brahmin.   Actors especially heroins, character actors and comedians always were identified with some camp or the other and used to get majority of their opportunities from their respective camps.   But Satyanarayana was a rare exception who maintained cordial relations with all camps and sought after by all Camps.   Mid 70s to late 90s there was hardly any big budget movie with big star was made without Satyanarayana having an important role in it.   Satyanarayana longevity in film career is such that he acted with three generation of actors, NTR & ANR, Krishna and Shoban babu from 60s to 90s, Chiranjeevi, Nag, Venky and Balayya from 90s and 2000s and lastly with Jr. NTR, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun.  There is no parallel to Satyanarayana in Telugu/Indian/world cinema, who has not worked as a hero but survived as character actor for over 60 years and worked in over 750 movies and commanded respects of all his co stars including NTR and ANR, directors, producers and technicians alike

Disservice by I&B Ministry and Government of India: As happened with many actors, directors, producers, music directors from south indian movies, great injustice has been done to Satyanarayana also.    A versatile actor who has acted for over 60 years and in over 750 movies was not considered for even Padmashri.     For over the last two decades there were appeals from many senior actors from Telugu industry including Chiranjeevi that his services to the film industry should be recognized even at fag end of career but the authorities that be in I&B and Governmen of India cannot look beyond the mediocre like Saif Ali Khans and Asha Pareeks for the converted awards.  

Thanks, Satyanarayana for the wholesome entertainment for over 60 years to Telugu movie goers

As long Telugu film industry is there and anything was written about Telugu film industry Satyanarayana will have a special chapter in it and his count will be in the first top 10 actors of Telugu industry.  

Om Shanti

S. Prabhakar

23.12.2022