Director Bapu 90th Birth Anniversary
Popular Artist,Cartoonist,movie director,Satthiraju Lakshminarayana (Bapu) born on 15.12.1933 at Narasapur town in West Godavari district of A P.
Today is the 90th Birth Anniversary of this great Artist turned film director
Businessoftollywood.com remember this great director on his 90th Birth Anniversary recollecting the past memories.
Bapu was a Law graduate from Madras University.
He started his professional career as a political cartoonist.
Bapu was a great artist. He designed several front page art for many novels.
Mullapudi Venkata Ramana was the best friend of Bapu.
To be precise, if Mullapudi is a pen, Bapu is a brush.
Later Mullapudi with pen and Bapu with megaphone did wonders in Telugu cinema.
For almost all the Bapu directed movies,Mullapudi Venkataramana was with him throughout.
Mullapudi provided script and dialogues for Bapus’ latest film Ramarajyam. Unfortunately mullapudi could not survive till the completion of the film Ramarajyam.
Bapu’s first film as director was Sakshi.It was a masterpiece.He extracted best action from actor G Krishna in this film. The climax scene in the movie was excellent. Sakshi may be termed as the first Telugu film shot entirely in outdoors. In the opinion of this writer Sakshi is a must see movie.
S V Ranga Rao was a natural actor. Under the direction of Bapu, S V Ranga Rao in the role of Ravana in the film Sampoorna Ramayanam projected Ravana character with ease.
In his film Muthyala Muggu (a social movie), Bapu introduced the Mythological character of Anjaneya (Maruthi) as a protector of heroines children and also as a link in uniting the separated wife and husband. This movie was a box-office hit. Actress Sangeetha was introduced as heroine through this film.
Bapu as an artist imagines the characters and accordingly selects actors, especially heroines.
K V Mahadevan provided music for most of the films directed by Bapu.
In his film Sneham (remake of Hindi hit Dosti) Bapu introduced Rajendra Prasad and Sai Kumar to Tollywood.
The short list of Bapu directed films:-
Sakshi(1967)
Bangarupicchuka(1968)
Buddhimanthudu(1969)
Balaraju katha(1970)
Inti Gowravam(1970)
Sampoorna Ramayanam(1971 – Sobanbabu as Rama)
Andalaramudu(1973)
Muthyala muggu(1975)
Seetha kalyanam(1976 – Ravi as Rama))
Bhaktha Kannappa(1976)
Sneham(1977 – Remake of Hindi silver jubilee hit”Dosthi”)
Manavoori Pandavulu(1978)
Gorantha Deepam(1978)
Toorupu velle railu(1979–Nuthan Prasad as Satan)
Vamsavruksham(1980)
Rajadhiraju(1980)
Kaliyuga Ravanasarudu(1980)
Thyagayya(1981 – J V Somayajulu in title role)
Radhakalyanam(1981)
Krishnavatharam(1982)
Pelleedupillalu(1982)
Yedi nyayam yedi dharmam(1982)
Manthrigari Viyyankudu(1983)
Seethammapelli(1984)
Bullet(1985)
Jakie(1985)
Kalyanathamboolam(1986)
Pellipusthakam(1991)
Mr.Pellam(1993)
Sreenadha kavi sarvabhaumudu(1993)
Pellikoduku(1994)
Rambantu(1996)
Radhagopalam(2005)
Sundarakanda(2008)
Sri Ramarajyam(2011 – Nandamuri Balakrishna as Rama)
Mullapudi Venkata Ramana With his pen and Bapu with his Brush created Telugu Cartoon Characters like Budugu,Dumbu,,Sri Gana Pesoonamba.
Mullapudi provided story ,script,Screenplay and dialogues for all the Telugu movies directed by Bapu.
Bapu was honored with Raghupathi Venkkaiah Award in the year 1986 which he has shared with his best friend and associate Mullapudi Venkata Ramana.
Bapu was honored with Padmasri by Government of India in the year 2013
National Film Award (1975) for the movie Muthyala Muggu as best feature film in Telugu.
National Film Award (1993) for the movie Mister Pellam as best feature film in Telugu.
Bapu directed movies, Balaraju Katha(1971),Andala Ramudu(1973), Muthyala Muggu(1975),Pelli Pusthakam(1991),Sri Rama Rajyam(2011) got Nandi Awards as best movies of respective years shown in brackets.
Film fare award (south – 1976) as best director for the movie Seetha Kalyanam
Film fare award (South – 1980) as best director for the movie Vamsa Vruksham
Film fare award (South – 1993) as best director for the movie Mister Pellam
Bapu received Film fare Life-time achievement award(South – 2013) for his contributions to Telugu film industry.
Sri Ramarajyam is the only movie directed by Bapu without the company of Mullapudi Venkata Ramana.
Actress chandrakala was seetha in Bapu’s Sampoorna Ramayanam, Actress Jayaprada was seetha in Seetha Kalyanam directed by Bapu. Bapu has selected Actress Nayanatara for the role of Seetha in Sri Ramarajyam. Nayanatara did justice to seetha’s role, thanks to the great director Bapu.
Bapu originally an artist with brush imagined what type of sets he wanted and all that provided by producer Sai Baba and made the film Sri Rama Rajyam a masterpiece.
An artist, cartoonist and a director were in Bapu.
Satthiraju Lakshminarayana (Bapu) the popular artist,cartoonist and movie director passed away due to illness on 31st August 2014 in Chennai.
