Ballari Raghava (1880-1946)

Tadpatri Raghavacharlu, popularly known as 'Ballary' Raghava, was a renowned actor.

he advocated and developed the naturalistic style in acting. He was very particular that women should always play female roles on the stage. In 1927 he went to England and took part in English dramas with Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton. On his return to India, he encouraged playwrights to set aside the classical style and to take to naturalistic plays. Instead of protracted declamations and conversations, he advocated short dialogues coupled with appropriated gestures.

'Kaladadheechi'
(Nallamilli Surreddy)

Dedicated to uplift Grameena Natakam.Titled as 'Kaladadheechi'

Garikapati Rajarao

Aaveti Purnima

Akella

Play Wright

Ammanibai

Actress & director

Attili Krishnarao

Play Wright & Director

Angara Surya Rao

Angara Surya Rao

Play Wright, Story writer, and Historian

Born in 1927 at Mandapeta. and settled in Visakhapatnam.

Chandrasena (Andhrapradesh Sahitya academy awarded play),

Enimidi natikalu, Rendu satabdala Visakhanagara charitra,

Samagra Visakhanagara Charitra is some of his renowned books.

he is one of the founders of Visakha rachayithala Sangham.

He was a member of Andhra Pradesh Sahitya academy from 1974 to 1978.

Kerla Venkateswara Rao
Stage Artist, Director, Singer, Music Director
Jaya Kalaniketan, Visakhapatnam

B.V.S.Sastry

A Versatile Writer and Poet.

His plays 'Chanakya sapatham', 'Ekalavya' etc.are famous

Dr.P.Balakotayya

Artiste, Diredtor, Parishath plays judge

B.V.Ramana Murthy
Artiste and Play wright

Balaramaiah IAS

K.RaghuramaiahHe was popularly known as “Eelapata Raghuramaiah”.Since he had the ability to sing padyams and songs through the whistle, by putting his finger in mouth and producing the whistle or flute sound. He was famous for the roles of Sri Krishna or Dushyantha or Bhavani sankara, Narada etc. He performed I those roles for about 60 years. He indulged in elaborate raga alapana, based on Hindustani ragas while rendering padyams.He acted as Sri Krishna in the film “Sri Krishna Rayabaram” made in early ’60s and in the film “Chintamani” featuring Bhanumathi. He acted in other films also, in which he sang the usual verses in his usual dramatic style. He was awarded ‘Padmashri’ by Govt of India

Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao

(January 20, 1907 - December 3, 1968)

Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao was an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu theatre, and Telugu cinema. He promoted Kuchipudi dance along with Vedantam Parvatisam in 1957 helped the government in the establishment of Siddhendra Kalakshetra in Kuchipudi village. This institution was later merged with the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University in 1989. He wrote many articles to take this art form to the public. He joined All India Radio in 1956 and broadcast many drama and playlets. He founded Shiva temple and Vedic School in his native village.

He founded College for Theatre arts in Eluru in 1938 and trained many students and art lovers. He established Prabhat Theatre in 1942, an institution and introduced new techniques into the stage plays. He entered the Telugu film industry during the early period and acted in some films like Paduka Pattabhishekham (1945), Bala Nagamma (1942), Sarangadhara (1937), and Draupadi Manasamrakshanam (1936).

Burra Subrahmanya Sastry

He is famous for the female roles of Satyabhama, Chandramathi, Chintamani, Sakkubayi etc. He is considered as next to sthnam narasimha rao in portraying female roles. He is proficient in Telugu and Sanskrit languages and authored the padya natakam “Bhooyo Bhooyo namamyaham” ,which was staged in the nandi nataka parishath. He worked as instructor to the students of padya natakams in Telugu university. He acted in the role of the mother of Prakasham panthulu in the drama “Praja nayakudu prakasham” and received great appreciation for the same. He rendered Harikathas also. He received the puraskaram from the AP govt in 2007. he acted as Chinthamani(second part) in the drama organized by this writer in 2006 in Hyderabad and received puraskaram from our organization. He settled in Hyderabad.

C.S.Rao
Play wright

Bhamidipati Kameswara Rao
Author, Playwright

Ch.Mahesh
Artiste and Director

Chandala Kesavadasu

Achanta Venkataratnam naidu
he is famous for the roles of Duryodhana, Jalandhara and other villain characters and also mayasabha mono action. Endowed with the correct physical features for the villain characters, he formed his own troupe and staged dramas throughout the state for the many years. He received puraskaram from AP state govt. He is still acting occasionally

Pandilla Sekharbabu

Chatla Sreeramulu
is the only man to have taught at all four universities that have a department of theatre arts in Andhra Pradesh, also, the first artiste from the state to receive Emeritus Fellowship from the Human Resources Department of the Government of India. He was awarded the certificate of ‘Producer and Teacher’ by the British Drama League, London in 1970. He has been awarded ‘Best Actor’ twice by Andhra Nataka Kala Parishad and has received the State Natak Academy. Award (1982). He has been the chairman of the Nandi TV Awards Committee (2001) and member of the Nandi Film Awards Committee. He is a Member, Board of Studies of four universities in A.P. He is associated with the theatre group, Rasaranjini.

DV Subba Rao
He was famous for the role of Harishchandra. He had a melodious voice and created his individual style of rendering verses, which became a trend for the later artists for the role of Harishchandra. He although indulged in long winding ragas, his diction was clear with action and bhava. He died at the age of 49 years.

Dhulipala
Although he is famous cini actor, he was first and foremost as stage actor. He was popular for the role of Duryodhana and in the drama and for mayasabha mono action. He won the award as best duryodhana in the All Andhra competitions in 1949. His other popular roles were myravana, yugandhara minister, gaya etc. He worked as a pleader clerk .He died recently. His audio CD is shown in CD section.

Draksharama Saroja (Y.Saroja)
Stage, Cine and TV artiste

Draksharama Saroja (Y.Saroja)

G.Balaramaiah IAS
Stage artiste

V.S.Raghavachari
Editor & Publisher - Kaladeepika monthly

Gadde Srinivas ( Abhinaya Srinivas)
Editor & Publisher - Abhinaya monthly

Naidu Gopi

A.Sivaramireddy

B.V.Rama Rao

Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao

Bhamidipati Kameswara Rao

Bhamidipati Kameswara Rao & Radhakrishna

Ch.Rajatha Murthy

Chalasani Krishna Prasad

Duggirala Someswara Rao

G.Ravi Krishna

Immaneni Hanumantha Rao

K.Venkateswara Rao

Koduri Achayya

Malladi Bhaskar

Malladi Rama Krishna Sastry

Pampana Dayananda Babu

Dr.Modali Nagabhushana Sharma

Tammareddy Raghurama Rao

Y.Saibaba

Gubbi Veeranna

Gurajada Apparao

Gummadi Gopalakrishna

Born in 1955 in Meduru in Krishna District, A.P, India, Sri Gummadi Gopalakrishana is endowed witha befitting figure, high histrionic talent, musical voice and literary understanding. He took to acting from a very young age. besides acting in hundreds of performances in the main roles, he rendered direction, music and sets and moulded each play as an aesthetic masterpiece and presented them throughout India and abroad. He has become the front line theatre personality with tremendous talent and versatility.

Sri gopalakrishna is the founder General Secretary of Sri Satya Sai Kala Nikethan through which he has been rendering yeomen servie to the stage through performance and promotional activities.

Characters performed:- Main & leading roles in : Mythological : Srikrishna, Rama, Harsichandra, Narada, Arjuna.Social : Bilvamangala(chintamani), Ontipuli(yakshanagana).Literary : Srikrishna, Rama, Harsichandra, Narada, Arjuna.Historical : Jesus Christ, Sakarudu, and many more.

To recapitulate and preserve the past glory of Telugu ' Padya Natakam ' and make it a perennial flow of art through both performance and documentation under the latest digital technology. To inspire the younger generation to imbibe the spirit of our great heritage to continue the tradition. Though the projects are highly ambitious involving Lakhs of Rupees towards shooting, recording, editing, remuneration etc for each DVD to be brought out, Sri Gummadi Gopala Krishna is confident that with the king hearted support of art-lovers, the DVDs will be made on many subjects like Sri Krishna tulabharam, Satya Harischandra, gayo Pakkhyaanam, Chintamani etc., and solicits their patronage for the great documentation projects.

Javvadi Rama Rao

K.K.L.Swamy

Javvadi Rama Rao

K.S.T.Sai

K.Venkateswara Rao

Kandukuri Veeresalingam

Maddala Ramarao

P.Suribabu
Famous for roles for Dharmaraja, Brihaspathi(in tara sashankam-telugu),narada etc.He successfully ran his own drama troupe and gave hundred of performances throughout the state with own settings and trick scenes. he had a peculiar, bold voice and was called as Kanchu Kantham Suri babu. He also acted in mythological and social films (as narada in Sri venkateswara mahathyam) featuring NTR and Savithri, and as Akrura in the film Sri Krishna Leelau with SV Ranga Rao as kamsa.

M.Prasada Murthy

Shanmukhi Anjaneya Raju
He was famous for the roles of Sri Krishna,Sri Rama,narada,nakshtraka etc. He learnt classical music, which he utilized well in rendering padyams. He also sang padyams in long winding ragas, but stood apart due to his knowledge of classical music. He swayed the audience for many years and contractors cashed on his popularity. He gave gramophone records also. Information on his audio CD is given in the CD section. Addanki SriramaMurthy: He was famous for the roles of Dasaratha and Dharmaraja etc. He sang the padyams in classical music style with clarity and bhava. I saw him on stage in his old age.

Manapuram Satyanarayana

K Venkateswara Rao

P. Lakshmana Rao
Popularly known as “sampath nagar” lakshmana rao, he is famous for the role of anjaneya in the drama “ramanjaneys yuddham”. He acted only in that role for about 50 years though out the state as professional. His specialty is that he sings the padyams in a very high pitch(shruthi) than other, continuously in long winding ragas. Even though he is not educated, due to this special skill alone he became the darling of the masses for only his singing powers. He is considered to be highest paid drama artist on the stage. He is about 70 years of age and still acting. His audio cassettes are available in all leading music stores.

Santarao kosanam

Ravi Kondala Rao

Tulasi Balakrishna

Kerla Pulla Rao

Sthanam Narasimha Rao

popularly known as Sthanam (Telugu: స్థానం నరసింహారావు) (23 September 1902 - 21 February 1971), was an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu theatre and Telugu cinema. He was well known for playing stunning female characters and was a recipient of a Padma Sri Award. His depiction of the Sringara rasa as Satyabhama in Srikrishna tulabharam kept audiences spellbound. Equally enchanting performances in Roshanara, Deva Devi in Vipranarayana and the eponymous Chintamani made his place in Telugu theater permanent. His most memorable acting, however, was as Madhuravani in Gurajada Appa Rao`s comedy Kanyasulkam.

Sthanam had over 1,500 performances to his credit. His productions of classics on All India Radio include Kanyasulkam and Ganapati. He acted in Telugu films such as (Radhakrishna in 1939 and Satyabhama in 1941) and authored a book about his vast acting experience entitled, Natasthanam. He was felicitated in Rangoon and gifted golden crown in 1938. His Sashtipoorti was grandly celebrated in 1962 at Hyderabad

Karnati Lakshminarasayya

Gandham Nagaraju

T.J.Ramanatham

Venkat Govada Actor/Director

Sri VENKAT GOVADA – Artiste and DIRECTOR
Sri Govada Venkat is popularly known as 'VENKAT GOVADA' in the theatre circles. He is a young, dynamic and well-known personality in Telugu theatre for the last 20 years. He is a veteran Actor, Director and Producer. His style of presentation of plays is unique and his direction and dialogue delivery are crisp on Telugu stage. For the past two decades, his impact on Telugu theatre is standard.
He started his unbeaten theatrical innings with a small role as shishya in the play 'Kshamayadharithri' followed by hundreds of plays and play-lets in Andhra Pradesh also other cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Kharagpur, Mumbai, New Delhi, Berhampur, Bengaluru etc.
After his post graduation in MA(Hindi), he did his PG Diploma in Acting from Central University, Hyderabad. He has completed M.Phil.(Hindi) and presently prosecuting his PhD.
As an actor, he acted more than 125 plays in major roles(Telugu), apart from Hindi Plays like 'Mahabharath ki Saanjh', 'Surya ki Antim Kiran se Pehli Kiran tak', 'Antharaal'. He also acted in 9 Movies, 38 Television serials, 30 Radio plays. He wrote and published 2 play-lets, 9 short stories and 15 poems.
As a stage Director he innovates new ideas and conceives new techniques to present the plays. He produced about 20 plays and won number of prizes as Best Actor, Best Director and Best Award for Production in almost all the competitions conducted by various voluntary cultural organizations in Andhra Pradesh and also in the prestigious Nandi competitions being conducted by Government of Andhra Pradesh. Apart from these, he also received Awards for his outstanding contribution to the stage.
The crowning glory in his career are – felicitating by the then Chief Minister of Government of Andhra Pradesh Sri K. Rosaiah in 2010 for his action as 'AMBEDKAR' and also by the then Chief Minister of Pondicherry. He has recently Acted, Directed, Produced and presented the play 'RAAJIGAADU RAAJAYYADU' with an about 70 artists in many places in the state, which is of 4 hours 15 minutes duration. This has created a record in Telugu Theatre. Some of the famous plays directed by him are sarihaddu, chittaginchavalenu, a gulsithan hamara, asalu nenu, aham brahma, yagnaseni aathmakatha, chengalvapoodanda, kodandapaani, raajigaadu raajayyadu etc.
Sri VENKAT GOVADA, a man of great integrity and selfless commitment to the development of Theatre made him a titan in the Telugu stage. He trained and guided many young Actors and Directors in his association under Telugu theatre.