Telugu Film Industry Celebrates 80 years

‘Bhakta Prahallada’, the first Telugu talkie film was released on September 15, 1931, 80 years ago. Marking this, the Telugu film industry has celebrated the 80th birthday at Film Nagar Cultural Centre, Hyderabad.

Various film personalities like Dr Dasari Narayana Rao, K Raghavendra Rao, Dr Mohan Babu, Prasanna Kumar, Burugupalli Siva Ramakrishna, Tammareddy Bharadwaja, Murali Mohan, D Suresh Babu, Venkatesh, Srikanth, Ram, Vijayender Reddy, Ashok Kumar, K L Narayana, Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao and others participated in this programme. State Minister of Cinematography D K Aruna inaugurated the event by hoisting the flag while Sr actress Krishnaveni and K Raghavulu cut the cake. Later Dr Dasari Narayana Rao felicitated several old artists with shawls and then a website was launched in the same event.

Addressing the gathering Dr Dasari Narayana Rao said, “We are celebrating the birthday of Telugu cinema. The present generation is not aware of when the Telugu cinema was born. This is the historical day. Even though it was not initiated in the past, we are planning to start this year and continue every year as a festival and even declare a holiday on that day from next year onwards. Many have contributed services marking this day. We are enjoying the fruits of the services rendered by many in the industry. We are supposed to remember this day forever because the path we are walking in today was laid by many legends in the past. The world’s first mookie film was made in 1903 and the first Indian mookie film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was released in 1913. It was produced by Dada Saheb Phalke on whose name the awards are given away every year. In 1927, the Warner Brothers made the first talkie film. Raghupathy Venkayya garu is the father of Telugu cinema. He served restlessly for the development of Telugu film industry. He trained his son Prakash at overseas and made few films. After few mookie films, Pothina Srinivas Rao launched the first theater Maruthi Theater in Vijayawada. H M Reddy directed the first talkie film ‘Bhakta Prahallada’ in Telugu and it was released on September 15th, 1931. Sher Irani was the producer of this film. However there was a controversy on its release date. Later after doing a thorough research it was confirmed that the release date was September 15, 1931. This movie was released with a single print and the same rotated through out Andhra Pradesh. This programme was organized only to inform the details of the history of Telugu cinema. A flag was specially designed for this event which was hoisted today. The senior most actress Krishnaveni garu introduced NTR through the film ‘Mana Desam’. Similarly K Raghava garu also introduced many artists through his films. We are honoured to have them with us today. Today is the biggest day for Telugu film industry. It’s also the 100th birthday of the Telugu film industry’s most prominent director K V Reddy. On the other hand we are also happy to celebrate the 80th birthday of Telugu cinema.”

D Suresh Babu announced that any old photographs related to Telugu cinema if sent to them will be displayed in the archives. He also requested everyone to render their support to run this programme successfully. According to him this programme will be held even grandly in the coming year.