Baahubali: The Beginning (BBB) – a Telugu movie with a potential to redefine Indian Cinema.

BBB the dream and labour of love of director SS Rajamouli for over last three years has hit theaters all across India and abroad like a tsunami.   Made at a mind boggling budget of Rs. 250 crores and released simultaneously in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi in over 4200 screens, it has re-written box office records (reaping about Rs. 268 crores in first week itself)  not only for a Telugu movie but an India movie.

SS Rajamouli

First things first it is writer and Director Rajamouli, all the way with each frame of the movie bearing his stamp of authority.    He has not compromised on any thing time, money and efforts.     Spending more than one year on pre production work on the script and conceiving every frame before shoot, preparing the actors (specially Prabhas and Rana to build that fantastic toned bodies).   It is reported that he took more than 109 days for the waterfall scene and 130 days for the war scenes spent Rs. 95 crores on VFX.    He also exhibited his unique marketing style of relying more on internet rather than talks show, pre-release functions.     BBB tailor on youtube got 4.05 million hits in just 24 hours and had been a major contributor for the success.    

Prabhas

The spending of more than one year in planning and another two years in production is fully justified by the awesome results with such minute details and putting life in to each frame.   Kudos to producers Shobu yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni for reposing so much of trust on SSR and dare to pump in Rs. 250 crores for a Telugu movie as against average budget of about 25 to 35 crores even with top stars like Mahesh Babu.   Ultimately it turned out to be the most expensive film in the history of Indian cinema.   With 9 out 9 blockbusters including Maghadheera and Eega under his belt, SSR, has conceived the most ambitious movie - a visual splendour.   Like all his earlier movies, he started not only with very strong and well defined principle characters but also each frame in his mind and picked up a team of actors and more importantly technicians who can translate his thoughts and dreams into a reality     SSR took a big gamble by picking up Prabhas (Shiva/Bahubali) and Rana (Bhallal Deva) for the main leads, both of whom are not top notch stars in Telugu industry and almost unknown at all India level.    

Rana 

It is the mastery of director SSR who molded them and extracted superlative performances.  Both of them pulled off performance of their life time.    Prabhas has not acted in any other movie for the last 3 years (and reported to have been paid Rs. 20 crores against maximum Rs, 8 crores which a No. 1 star Mahesh Babu commands) Though lot was written about the way they worked to get muscled and toned bodies, one should not miss their restrained performances matching frame for frame.     They are well supported by Satya Raj as Katappa, Ramyakrishna as Shivagami, Nassar as Bijjaladeva, Tamanna as Avantika and Anushka as Devasena.  

The story is very simple and woven around very strong characters.    Within few minutes into the movie we are transported into spectacle world of the waterfall, the mystical forests and water bodies above the cliffs which are spellbound.   Chasing the petite Avanthika (Tamanna) Shiva (Prabhas) lands up in to Mahishmati kingdom ruled by Bhallal Deva (Rana), a tyrant ruler who keeps princess Devasena (Anushka) under captive for 25 years.  Through flash-backs Shiva traces back to his identity being the son of  Mahedra Bahubali (also played by Prabhas).    Whereas Bahubali is kind hearted and every move of his has tacit approval of the Maharani, Bhallal Deva, on the other hand is crooked, tyrant and over ambitious.    Without much twists and turns the film moves to the war strategies and war zone with Bahubali and Bhallal Deva taking on Kalakeya warloards.   With the announcement that whosoever between Bahubali and Bhallal Deva kills Kalakeya warloard will be the heir apparent for the crown, the War become fearsome with ahubali and Bhallal Deva competing with each other for getting the prize scalp.  The war scenes are lavishly mounted, craftily executed with imaginary arms and ammunition.   Having planned the movie in two parts not much story line has been covered in the first part and the first part has been ended giving a critical twist like a TV serial.    That makes viewing of the sequel a compulsory and to the advantage of the producers.  Though while leaving theater one may be a wee bit disappointed not so much for the movie but that one has to wait for a year for the sequel.  But with half of the second part ready and seeing the success i am sure the producers and director will be tempted to finish the sequel fast though such word is not there in the dictionary of Rajamauli. 

Srinivas Mohan

The Real Bahubalis  - The Technicians : The VFX team headed by national award winning VFX expert Srinivas Mohan and his team are the real Heros/Bahubalis who have taken India VFX to the next level and at par with any Hollywood movies that too at 1/4^th of Hollywood movie’s budget and the best part is 90% of the VFX of this movie are done in India. 

Ramoji film city Hyderabad

And the entire shooting including the battle scenes were picturised at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad (over 100 acres of land) and Karnool. Most of the post production work was done at Annpurna Studios at HyderabadThe VFX efforts are ably complemented by the marvellous Art work by four time national award winner Sabu Cyril in creating the setting like in a period epic.  

MM Keeravani

The visual effects created by VFX   team and Sabu Cyril have been made absorbing and made the audience get involved by the fantastic back ground score by MM Keeravani elder brother of Rajamouli (who scored music of few Mahesh Bhat hindi movies like `Criminal' in the name of  Kareem).

Peter Hains

The lavishly mounted battle scenes and other combative scenes were well choreographed by stunt director Peter Hains (the Thai stunt director settled in south working in many Telugu and Tamil movies) employing more than one thousand artists using imaginative and innovative war fare tools 

Positives of Bahabali:

Without a shred of doubt Bahubali is going to be the game changer for Telugu cinema and also Indian cinema.   Before Bahubali if anyone said that a Telugu film is being planned at Rs. 100 crores that person might have been treated as crazy (because the highest grosser in Telugu  till date was Attarintiki Daredi clocking at Rs. 80 cores).  Secondly a Telugu movie/south indian movie having a simultaneous release in Hindi over 4200 screens and to be accepted by all India audience and making ripples  abroad in countries like US, UK, Australia, Canada and Malaysia is heartening.    The box office bonanza of making more than Rs. 100 crores in first 3 days, Rs, 268 crores in the first week, selling satellite right for a whopping Rs. 25 crores will redefine the power of Telugu/India cinema

ANR in devadass

NTR in DVS Karna

Greatest South Indian actors like NTR, ANR, SV Ranga Rao Shivaji Ganeshan, Kannada Rajkumar, Malayalee Prem Nazir were hardly known at all Indian level so also  many producers/directors and music directors.   But with Bahubali, Rajamouli, Prabhas, Rana, Keeravani have become house hold names.   It will be a shame if IIFT Awards continue to show-case only Bollywood movies and continue to do the mistake of ignoring Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam movies and also other Indian languages.  Bahubali has left Hindi movies way behind and claimed its stake to be the first really globally accepted Indian movie.  

Return of glorious `Janapadam'(folklore) Movies  

NTR in `Kanchukota'

NTR & Kantarao in `Chikkadu Dorakadu'

With Bahubali there is a glimmer of hope that the glorious `Janapadam/folklore' movies may come back.   In my child hood the folklore stories of Chandama and Janapadam movies of NTR (and many of his poor cousins like Kantarao) by the great director ` B Vithalacharya' (who was fondly and with reverence called Janapada Brahma) kept us captivated and entertained for decades together.    NTR with his well built personality and glowing face used the carry with ease the peculiar consumes of short frocks type of tops and stretchlon tight pyjamas (i doubt if any king in India every wore such dress).    For almost each scene he used to change the designer tops with consume designers showing their great creativity.   NTR has acted in such movies in equal number as Mythological movies (with no parallel in the world cinema to his adaptability to these role and developed a massive and faithful fan base.    Though few of them were remade in Hindi (like Gora aur Kala and Rajkumar), the heros (like Rajendra Kumar and Shammi kapoor) never could replicate the costumes used in the original movies or or aura of NTR.   In these movies there used to be lot of scope for twists turns, massive settings, trick photography (VFX used to called so in those days and was pioneered by Babu bhai Bai Mistry) horse ride chases, swords fights (even in this the art director used to show lot of talent in coming up with a unique sword for every sword fight scene), black magic, many character turning into animals, birds, reptiles and combative duel of hero with all kinds of animals and aliens.     Many should realise that all these were there (alas at very low budget and black and white) in 1950s and 1960s much before spellburg hit international reputation with `Back to the Future' series, Aliens followed by all sorts of supermen series hitting the market till date.     I really wish that SSR takes up NTR type of janapadam movie with the like budget VFX effects of Bahubali.    It will be so entertaining and refreshing from the overkill of Car/motor cycle chases, guns and girls.   

Director will be back to be captain of the ship : There was a time the great directors Nagi Reddy, Chakrapani, Kamlakar Kameswara Rao, who worked for banners like Vijaya, Vahini, AVM, and Shanta Ram, K Asif in hindi used to command great respect to the extent that stars like NTR, ANR, Shivaji used to stand up when they used to walk into sets and used to surrender themselves into hands of Directors.  SSR has proved that whether it is animated character like `Eega/Makhi', Comedian turned hero for the first time in `Maryada Ramanna' or Prabhas and Rana, he can extract superlative performance from anyone.   SSR , i am sure, will bring back the golden era and elevate the position of director to dizzy heights.  

Whether other Industries have lapped up `MAKE IN INDIA’ call of our Prime Minister or not, but the producers of Bahubali and SSR have done so, they made a movie at Hyderabad and Karnool in Telangana/Andhra which is at par with any Hollywood movie.    With the global success of this movie, I am sure director SSR not only will bag few Bollywood assignments, but many of the  Hollywood studios may outsource movie making to Telugu/indian directors and technicians to make them cost effective.   

For the first time in the history, a Telugu movie got very positive and encouraging reviews not only from all papers/channels in India but many leading papers/channels abroad like The Guardian, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC, Forbes, CBC, MBCTV, Deadlineline and Daily Mail.   It is the first Indian movie to get 9.4 ranking on IMDB.   The stupendous success and acceptance of Bahubali all over India and abroad and the unanimity in superlative reviews by print and electronic media placing it technically at par with Beh Hur, Ten Commandments, Avtar and Lord of Rings will boost Telugu/south Indian/Indian producers, directors and technicians set their sight firmly on the international markets.   Besides many Hindi actors, producers and directors are lavish in their praise for the efforts of Rajamouli and it is the first movie after Sholay which was released in 1975 that a movie could manage such all India acceptance.

Take a bow to Rajamouli, producers, technicians and actors of BAHUBALI

S. Prabhakar

18.7.15

SP BALASUBRAMANIAM – THE MAVERICK SINGER

                                                                              

                                                                                      By S. Prabhakar

SPB with National Award

Today the 4^th June is the 69^th Birthday of SP Balasubramanyam (fondly referred to as SPB or Balu).  SPB is predominantly Telugu play back singer but had been equally adapt  in speaking and singing songs in Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and also sang in many other Indian languages and can be credited for being the first ever cross over singer, which now has become order of the day.   The famous Kishore never sang in any south Indian languages  nor Ghantasala sang any songs in Hindi there by depriving the people of the opportunity for other audience to listen them to their favourite singer in their languages.   He is so prolific in his singing that he holds Guinness World Record for recording highest number of songs (over 40,000) and recording highest number of songs on a single day, a whopping 21 Kannada songs in just 12 hours.  He also recorded 19 Tamil songs and 16 Hindi songs in a day.   He has a great appetite for winning awards too.   He has a unique distinction of winning National Award for best male play back singer for a record six times in four different languages (Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada), AP State Government Nandi award for best play back singer for another record number of 25 times, Tamil state award 4 times and Kannada state award for 3 times and Film fare award for 6 times.   He is recipient of Padmashri and Padma Bhushan from Government of India.

       

SPB with Ghantasala

To begin with SPB never had it easy to break into playback singing in Telugu largely due to the colossal presence of Ghantasala (Vekateswara Rao) not only the best singer in Telugu but in all Indian languages for the sheer melody, wide range of singing and effortless singing.    In 1950s and 1960s there was no way Telugu film goers could accept anyone anywhere near Ghantasala.    He ruled the hearts of all Telugu movies goers and a house hold name not only in those days but till date after 40 years of his death.  So SPB had to make a very quiet and modest debut in Comedian turned Hero and Producer Padmanabham’s Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna in 1966.    For atleast next five years or so he had to manage by signing for comedians heavily banking on his mimicry abilities (specially for Rajababu) and side heros/character actors.    The first Hero with whom his voice was associated was Krishna, who too had a frail and thin voice unlike the boomerang voice of NTR and deep voice of ANR.   But cleverly SPB started making inroads and tried to have a foot hold in Kannada and Tamil film industry at the same time.  

Come 70s the deteriorating health of Ghantasala and ultimately the untimely death of Ghantasala in 1974 has left the entire Telugu playback singing field wide open and SPB grabbed the opportunity with both hands.   Both NTR and ANR were at their peak and no one could imagine anyone except Ghantasala singing for them which he was doing for more than 20 years till then.   Here again apart from his singing abilities, SPB mimicry abilities helped him to adopt his voice for both NTR and ANR and in the next couple of years he succeeded in being accepted for NTR and ANR specially with super hit songs of Vetagadu for NTR and Premabhishekam for ANR. For next 25 years there was no looking back for him and an alternative options for Telugu producers.    

SPB with Illayaraja

Around the same time a great transformation took place in Tamil film industry.    TM Soundarya Tajan used to be the voice for decades for  MGR and Shivaji Ganesan and other Tamil stars who were bit loud and melodramatic in their expressions.   But younger heros like Rajnikant and Kamal Hassan who were in the ascendance were in a less louder and softer mold and TMS did not suit their style.  Grabbing this opportunity, SPB has stormed Tamil play back singing scene partnering very successfully with Music Director Illayaraja and female singer S Janaki.   For next two decades he recorded more than 90% of the Tamil songs.    Besides Rajni and Kamal his voice suited all the younger crop of Tamil heros.   In the entire 80s this trio of SPB-Illayaraja-S Janaki have cast a magical spell and produced some immortal duets.   He also made inroads in to Kannada films with the help of young music directors like Rajan Nagendra and dislodged and aging PB Srinivasan.   It is only in Malayalam he could not succeed and play and distinct second fiddle to the melody king Yesu Das. 

SPB with Vishwanath

The biggest shortcoming of SPB had been his not been trained in classical music and used to pale in comparison with Ghantasala as Ghantasala used to sing classical based songs so effortlessly.     But for the 1979 Telugu super hit movie Shankarabharanam, director K Vishwanath has preferred SPB over play back singer Yesudas and classical singer M. Balamuralikrishna.   On many occasions SPB honestly admitted that he was so scared and reluctant to sing songs of Shankarabharanam which were based on pure Carnatic classical music.  It is on the insistence of K Vishwanath and music director KV Mahadevan and his assistant Puhalendi he got trained in classical music for few months and took a sort of re-birth in music world.    As they say rest is History – not only the songs, music and movie Shankarabharanam became super hit but SPB acquired new found recognition and respect not only in Telugu film industry but all other industries.   He went on to win National Award for best male play back singers for Shankarabharanam.   K Vishwanath gave two more master pieces in Sagara Sangamam (again SPB won National Award for best male play back singer) and Swati Mutyam, both under the music direction of Illayaraja.  

With the new found confidence by the success of Shanakarabharanam under his belt, he ventured into Hindi films with Ek Dujekeliya – a remake of Telugu super hit Maro Charitra (with his favourite combination of Kamal Hassan and K Balachander).    Not only the songs have become a rage but he went on to win National Award for best male play back singer, again a first being the only South Indian singer winning National Award for best Male singer for a Hindi song.   For next five years or so he was equally busy belting super hits one after the other specially in `Maine Pyaar Kiya’ and `Hum Apke Hai Kaun’ and many other Salman Khan movies, before going back to be busy with Telugu and Tamil industries.  

With the strange and un-explainable trend of making most of the Telugu songs to be sung by Hindi play back singers and with age catching up, SPB has not been as prolific in the last 5 years as he was throughout his career but nonetheless he always keeps himself busy and visible and still counted as undisputed king of play back singing in Telugu and Tamil.

SPB with Kamal Hassan

Besides play back singing he dabbled in many other facets of movies viz., acting, music direction, dubbing, producing, directing, compering and above all judging music competitions on TV.  Special mention should be made about his mimicry and dubbing abilities. Right from 1975 release Manmadhaleela, he has been dubbing all the Tamil movies of Kamal Hassan remade into Telugu and on many occasions Kamal Hassan has complimented that SPB voice sounds better for his acting than his own voice.   If one has to judge his dubbing abilities  one should see Kamal Hassan’s `Dashavataram’ in which he brought so much of variation in dubbing for 10 different roles including a female character.  

He has set high standards and benchmark for judging music talent shows on TV and nurturing young talent.    He has been judging and compering PADUTA TEEYAGA a Telugu talent search show on E-TV for the last 17 years without break.   I have seen so many music talent search shows in many languages being judged by top singers and music directors.  Without fail every judge goes over-board in praising the participants taking sides openly and doing pre-determined role-playing to the hilt.    They give an impression that none of the participants ever did any mistake in singing and presenting the songs and there is no scope for improvement and never play the role of mentors.   In contrast, SPB keeps the lyrics of all songs to be sung by the participants, keeps head phones and takes notes while participants singing and once the song is completed by the singer first he praises them generously then points out very minute details of wrong pronunciations and all other technical fine points and make them sing correctly.    Never has he made the exiting contests feel that they lost something and it is end of the world.   For 17 long years he never used the word` losing/lost' there was no crying or showing any negative emotions by any participants.    He, being Encyclopaedia of Telugu music industry, gives so many side stories with every song giving credit to the lyricists and all musicians whose names and identities are not known to many and makes the programme so interesting and absorbing.     He has a fantastic command over Telugu language (so also Tamil and Kannada) and may be he is one of the last of the purists in the industry.      His enthusiasm, dedication and devotion in nurturing young talents is unmatchable.    Right through his career he steered away from controversies and never responded even to the worst critics.   Once Ismail Darbar, a relatively unknown music director of Hindi Film industry remarked to a contestant in a music reality show that if he keep singing like this you will end up being like SPB, blissfully ignorant of the achievements of SPB.     He might not have scored music to that many number of songs in his entire career which SPB might have sung in a month at peak of his career.    Anyone else would have let the hell loose on him but SPB chose to ignore and nothing can be more hard hitting than ignoring such worthless comments 

Another great ability of SPB is whenever he participates on stage shows, which he does even at the age of 69 years, he sings the toughest songs also very close to recording quality and never minds pairing up with young singers who are participants in music talent search shows.

 

SPB paying respect to Yesudas

Lastly the best quality I see and like in SPB is his humility, modesty and  great sense of gratitude.   He is lavish in his praise of all his contemporaries and new singers, lyricists, and all musicians (not only the Music Directors).   Though KODANDAPAANI is very small time music director in Telugu industry, he always takes his name in all stage shows and programmes with lot of dignity and reverence as he gave him his first break and named his recording theater after him. 

 

Though there is no denying that all my life I have been an ardent fan of GHANTASALA, I am proud of the achievements of SPB for the last 40 years of play back singing and proud of the fact that he is a Telugu singer and an Indian.   I wish him all health and wish and pray that he continues to contribute to Telugu and India music industry and all other fields. 

SPB SIGNS OFF AT THE AGE of 74 YEARS ON 25.9.2020

Though bulky and faced the related problems SPB maintained a very good general health and handled bariatric surgery very well.    But when contacted mild covid and immediately got admitted in hospital, for a long time there was hope of his recovering like many other senior cine personalities.    But his treatment prolonged and ultimately he lost the battle and left for heavenly abode leaving a great void in play back singing. 

Going by the trail blazing achievements, there is is no doubt in any one's mind that he is one the greatest playback singers India has produced.   As far as Telugu Industry is concerned he will be placed a notch below Ghantasala, but surely he is at par with the great like TMS,  Kishore Kumar and PB Srinivas.   He was a multi lingual and national singer in the real sense..    No other singer has established equally well in so many languages - specially Telugu, Tamil and Kannada.    No other singer is so multi faceted as he was.   Apart from Singing, he was extremely successful as Music Director, lyricist, actor, producer, director, recording theater owner, dubbing artist, judge and anchor in reality shows.

More than any one else, it is going to be great loss to the Telugu film industry.  They lost one of the greatest film personality - most impactful singer after Ghantasala.  There could never be any other singer who can come anywhere near the achievements of SPB.   His command over Telugu language, love for Telugu language is unmatchable.   Till he breathed his last, he was concerned and expressed his anguish the way Telugu language has been distorted by singers from other languages who murder the language day in day out and how can the industry reverse this trend.    Being gentleman he was, he was never critical of the singers concerned but always suggested producers, directors that let them learn the language, understand the meaning of the lyrics and emote the song and most importantly not insult the language by the distortion.    

SPB has left behind a great legacy specially for the budding singers.     There are thousands of his programs and videos where he gave so many tips, that will be a great learning experience to anyone who wants to learn.    Apart from singing, his hard working nature, focus dedication, devotion, humility, friendly nature and many other qualities 

SPB Sir, thanks for all entertainment for over five decades, which we all will enjoy for our life time.   You might have joined your mentors Kodandapani, Ghantasala and Rafi in the Heaven. and enjoying their company. 

   

S. Prabhakar

4.6.2015 / 27.9.2020

TELUGU FILM INDUSTRY LEGENDARY `SUPERSTAR’ KRISHNA PASSES AWAY

With the passing away of Telugu Superstar Krishna, the legendary `Quartet' of Telugu Industry consisting of NTR, ANR, Krishna and Shobhanbabu has come to an end.

If there is a reference of two eyes of Telugu film industry the names of NT Ramarao (NTR) and A. Nageswara Rao (ANR) comes to our mind and if there is a reference of four pillars of the Telugu film industry, then the names of Krishna and Shobhan Babu is taken along with the names of NTR and ANR.     

He was blessed with very fair, handsome personality which he maintained in top conditions for over 40 years of his active film career. One of the few actors who announced his retirement at the right time and never acted after that though he had his own production house, and his son Mahesh Babu is top Telugu star for over 15 years. 

  

Though considered to be an average actor going by emotional quotient of his acting he managed to be in the top four Telugu actors' bracket for over 3 decades and has over 360 movies as leading actor to his credit and holds the record for completing 300 movies the fastest.   Like NTR and many other Telugu film stars he is known for his punctuality, hard work, sincerity and dedication and added to these qualities blessed with a golden heart.    

Discipline and Work ethics:  A workaholic, he pioneered the concept of working in three shifts the first shift starting sharp at 7 am and the last one going upto 9 pm in the night.    In 70s and early 80s in many years he used to have 12 releases a year and still holds the Telugu industry record for 18 releases in a year.      He was conferred the title of SUPER STAR by his fans (first time the word superstar coined for a Telugu actor) and also the title of  "NATASEKHAR

The Andhra James Bond: Krishna may not be my favourite actor by any yard stick but in my school days if I had to go to a movie it has to be a Krishna’s movie for its unending car, motorcycle chases, or horse ride chases and fight scenes. His first major hit (Golden Jubilee) was his 3^rd movies Gudachari 116 (which was remade as Farz in Hindi with Jitender which also made his career).   With the success of Gudachari 116, he continued to act in maximum number of action movies most of them used to be direct imports from Hollywood even beating Hindi producers in the race in copying/adopting.   

He acted in many James bond and cowboy movies (many produced by his own banner Padmalaya) which used to be much ahead of its times in terms of technology, action scenes and richness of the movie.  That was the reasons he was fondly referred to as Andra Jame Bond and Cowboy

Contribution as Film Producer : His contribution is more noteworthy as a Producer than as an actor. Whatever may be the poor quality of the movies he acted, when it comes to production, he used to take utmost care that he brought out the best product and as a producer he never disappointed.  Under his Banner PADMALAYA, he produced some of the biggest and costliest Telugu multi-starters, and under another banner Vijayakrishna movies he made some meaningful off-beat movies.    

The Care off address to Big Budget movies : Unlike Hindi, Telegu film industry was never known for multi starters as the top stars never liked to act together.   But Krishna under his banner brought together plenty of super stars of Telugu film industry in movies like PANDANTI KAPURAM, ALLURI SEETARAMA RAJU, DEMUDUCHESINA MANUSHULU. KURUKSHETRAM and SIMHASANAM.    

 The cost of those movies used to be so high that he could only break even if they ran for silver jubilee but all of them were Golden jubilee hits with the exception of Kurukhestram which could barely recover its cost.      His cowboy movie MOSAGALLAKU MOSAGADU (set in the deserts and forts of Rajasthan) was adaptation of Mackenn"s  Gold and Good Bad and Ugly and for a Telegu movie with a limited market that was a very risky venture in those days but his guts have paid him off well with the movie becoming not only super hits but raising the bar of production value of a Telugu movie. The movie was the first Telugu movie which was dubbed in many languages including Tamil, Hindi (as Khajana), English (as Treasure Hunt) and many foreign languages.   Because of his high-risk taking appetite, he was called as `Daring and Dashing Producer’.   He had many distinctions as a producer – first full length Eastman colour movie, first cinemascope movie,  first 70 mm movie and first DTS movie in Telugu.   PANDANTI KAPURAM and ALLURI SEETA RAMA RAJU both produced by him won National awards for best feature film in the years of their releases and he was conferred Padma Bushan by govt. of India for his contribution to Telugu film industry and he was also conferred Filmfare Life time achievement award.

Besides Telugu movies he produced many Hindi movies under his banner Padmalaya Pictures like Himmatwala (which has resurrected Jitender’s career) Meri Awaaz Suno and Suryavamsam

Man with a Golden Heart: Apart from being good human being, down to earth and amiable, another unique thing he introduced in the film industry and followed till end of his career was that if any of his movie flopped to the extent of producer not been able to recover his investment, he used to act in that producer’s next movie without any remuneration.  So if a movie of his was a hit, in any case the producer used to repeat him but even if the movie was a flop, the producer used to come back to take benefit of this concession scheme.  For sure few of those repeat movies used to be hit and made money prompting the producer to repeat him and thus he always used to be on a roll.  He always supported and helped some of the actors/characters actors long forgotten by the industry by giving small roles in his movies.    Rammohan with whom he debuted and whose career could not take off after that first movies has always found a role in all his productions in the next 30 years.     

Short Political career:  On request of Rajiv Gandhi Krishna entered politics and won Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket.    Though Krishna maintained a very cordial relation with entire Industry, there has always been a huge under current between him and NTR right from the days he made Alluri Seetarama Raju which NTR wanted to make but kept pending for long time.    After joining politics on congress ticket they became natural rivals and Krishna made some satirical movies on NTR viz., Mandadaleesudu and Gandi Peta Rakashyam.    After assassination of Rajiv Gandhi he exited from politics once for all.   

Relaxed Retired Life: After working for more than four decades and more than 360 movies in leading roles, he announced his retirement 10 years back very gracefully and dignifiedly and led a peaceful and relaxed retired life.  Krishna is considered to be the best in business as far as gauging the audience mood and predicting the success of movie fairly accurately.   That has helped his Son Mahesh Babu immensely in choosing right subjects and  MAHESH BABU has been phenomenal success and holding to No. 1 position in Telugu industry for over 15 years now.  Like father Mahesh Babu too is extremely smart and handsome and understably heart throb of all youth in Andhra and Telangana.  

My personal record: Being a die hard movie buff since my childhood i might have seen many movies of many stars but Krishan starrers hold a personal record.   Roughly i might have seen over 200 of his movies closely followed by NTR over 150 movies.    I might not have seen not even 100 movies of any other stars.   

Krishna, is another success story which proves that though one may not be extraordinarily talented, but with sheer hard work, dedication, being humane and focused one could be very successful in life.

Thanks for all the entertainment, specially in my childhood and being a great producer with super guts - undoubtedly you are DARING AND DASHING  

A life lived worthy.  When the History of Telugu Industry is written, Krishna, will find a golden chapter in it. 

OM SHANTI

S. Prabhakar

15.11.22