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| Kiran (Anoor) in Nelavanka |
Lyricist Sree Indraganti Srikantha Sarma on his association with Late Sree Jandhyala and about the film:
I knew Jandhyala before he became popular with that name. For his friends, he was either Siva or Sastry. Only when he came to films did he become popular as Jandhyala. Jandhyala's father owned a Bush radio dealership shop in Vijayawada. I was working in All India Radio then. When Jandhyala listened to a play titled "
teralu" that I wrote for AIR, he called me and we met at his father's shop. From then on, we met occasionally until he left to Madras to work with B.N. Reddy
gaaru. B.N. Reddy wanted to make a film on Beenadevi's novel "
puNyabhoomi kaLLu terichindi" but it didn't work out. Later, he became a dialogue writer and turned popular.
I wrote my first lyrics for the film
Krishnavatharam (
chinnaari navvu... chiTTi taamarapuvvu...) as Bapu-Ramana
gaaru were good friends of mine. Later, I never really thought of writing for another film. It was due to Veerabhadra Rao that I wrote for this film. (Veerabhadra Rao and Jandhyala were classmates and also did many plays together before Jandhyala went into movies. Veerabhadra Rao used to work as production executive in All india Radio where Srikantha Sharma was working in AIR.) It was he who mentioned my name to Jandhyala and Jandhayala then remembered our old friendship, asked me to come immediatly to Madras. So I went to Madras. The music sittings were done at Palmgrove Hotel in Madras. Ramesh Naidu used to compose the music once the lyric was okayed. I was there for a week and completed all six songs and came back to Vijayawada. Later I went to Muktyala for the shooting. I was there one day for the song
Edi matam... but the rest were done when I was not there. We thought we'd definetly get the award for that song but as the prints went missing, we missed the award too.
...After
Nelavanka, I worked with Jandhyala for two more films -
Puttadi Bomma and
Rao-Gopala Rao. Later, I joined Andhraprabha weekly. I then made Jandhyala to write a column for me. It was called
jandhyaasamayam. When he moved to Hyderabad, we used to meet more often at parties. He is really a great human being.
Acknowledgements : Late Sri Jandhayala, Sri Pulagam Chinnarayana, Sri Indraganti Srikanth Sharma, Rasool, M.V.Raghu, J.Pulla Rao
Article by
Sri Atluri
Edited by
NaChaKi
