Sovereign Cine Enterprises

O Seeta Katha (1974)

Technical:
Black and White
35 MM

Cast:
Kantha Rao ... Madhava Rao
Chandramohan ... Chandram
Roja Ramani ... Seeta
Devdas Kanakala ... Gopalakrishna
Subha ... Seeta's sister
Allu Ramalingayya ... Mandeswara Rao
Shyam Sundar ... Mandeswara Rao's son
Ramaprabha ... Sundari
Kalpana Rai ... Mandeswara Rao's wife
Pandari Bai ... Seeta's mother
Other Cast: Sakshi Rangarao, K.K. Sarma, Chalapathi Rao, Puspakumari, Manohari, Master Visweshwara Rao, Baby Usha, Baby Surekha

Dialogues: Gollapudi Maruthi Rao
Lyrics: C.Narayana Reddy, Veturi Sundararamamurthy (debut), Samudrala
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela, P. Leela, B. Vasantha
Camera: V.R. Yoganand
Music: K.V. Mahadevan
Producers: C. Aswini Dutt, A.R.S. Sarma
Story, Screenplay, Direction: K. Viswanath

Songs:

bhaaratanaarii charitamu (harikatha)
Lyric: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback: P. Leela
Cast: Subha

malle kannaa tellana maa seeta manasu
Lyric: C. Narayana Reddy
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela
Cast: Chandramohan, Roja Ramani

puttaDi bomma maa peLLikoDuku
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela
Cast: Chandramohan, Roja Ramani

kallaakapaTam erugani pillalu allari chEstE andam
Playback: P. Susheela
Cast: Roja Ramani, Master Visweswara Rao, etc.

ninu kanna katha, mee amma katha vinipinchanaa
Playback: B. Vasantha, P. Susheela
Cast: Roja Ramani, Ramaprabha

chintachiguru pulupani cheekaTanTE nalupani
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Cast: Ramaprabha

Story:

Seeta (Roja Ramani), a teenage girl, lives with her mother and elder sister (Subha) who runs the house with her harikatha performances. Seeta falls is in love with Chandram (Chandramohan), but evil Gopalakrishna (Devdas Kanakala) has an eye on her and hires goons to bash Chandram, who dies on the spot! Seeta marries Madhava Rao (Kantha Rao), father of Gopalakrishna, and makes Gopalakrishna realize his mistakes.

About the film:

The veteran lyricist Veturi gaaru debuted with the film. Aswini Dutt also started his film career with this film.

The film gave much needed break to Devadas Kanakala. The plot somewhat resembles the popular "Devadas" story. After Kanne Vayasu (1973), this is another top hit for the herione Roja Ramani, and she became hot property for performance-oriented roles. This is the third film in the K. Viswanath-Chandramohan combination, but it was with this film that their combo was recognized as being a hit combination! Eventually, Sirisirimuvva, Seetamalakshmi, Sankarabharanam, Subhodayam, etc. followed. The film is also a muscial hit, like other K. Viswanth-K.V. Mahadevan combo. Songs like malle kanna tellana..., chintachiguru pulupani..., puttaDi bomma maa peLLikoDuku... and bhaaratanaarii caritamu.. are big hits in this movie. The film won the second best Nandi award for the year 1974.

Devdas Kanakala speaks...

From the beginning, I was more interested in acting and was doing a course in theatres in Vizag University. Once I noticed that all my friends were just imitating our lecturer but not really performing, I discussed the same with him and he recommended that I should apply for the Pune University. I got a seat, since I already had theatre background. I had two problems there: money, and communication.My knowledge of English was limited to the Shakespearan style, and I seriously lacked communication skills needed for colloquy.

After the class, most students used to be in the canteen, but since I did not anyway have money to spend in the canteen, I used to sit in the library and read up a lot.

...There was this professor who came from a reputed American University that boasts of students such as Marlin Brando, was referring to one of the playlets and I answered them, and that came as a surprise to everyone! From that day on, I became a pet to him and got a lot of recognition. (Radha Saluja, Nasiruddin Shah, etc. were my batchmates back then). Once the course is completed, I came back to Madras and worked for Buddhimanthudu and Kaalam Maarindi (I had only two scenes in the latter, but Swathi magazine - a monthly at that time - wrote two columns on the movie, seeing which I felt very proud at that time! I got a job offer in the Andhra Pradesh Government's Sound and Music Department, and so I joined the job and married Lakshmi, who is also more interested in theatre.

After marriage, I got a job offer from the Madras Government to teach at the Madras Film Institute, and I thus moved to Madras. Sovereign Cine Enterprises' office used to be in front of my house at that time. Viswanath, with whom I worked for Kalam Maarindi also, came to my house and narrated the story to me, and asked me to suggest names of people who might be justified for the roles. Sobhan Babu and Sarada was a hit pair then, and thus I suggested their names for the movie. He smiled at me and asked me what might the hit range of the movie be, if the film has mostly newcomers. I said that it will be a hit but not as good hit like having Sobhan and Sarada. He said he was giving me a role in the film.

I thought that he'd give me a little role but I did take up the offer, very clearly stating that I don't have a problem as long as there's no clash of class schedules at the Institute. (Rajinikant, Chiranjeevi, Narayana Rao, Rajendra Prasad, Nazar, etc. were his students in the institute). He made a comment, and he came to me before Diwali to pay me the advance for the role of Gopalakrishna. I was unable to believe it! The film shooting was completed in the Chirstmas and Pongal holiday season, and I didn't need to take a break from classes. The film released and I got a lot of recognition.

...After this project, I did good films like Mangalyaaniki Maro Mudi, Gorintaaku, etc.. I almost did a hundred films and directed six films (including an unreleased film) - Nijam (1980) with Hema Chowdary and Gummadi (Gummadi always says that it's one of his best films!) Chali Cheemalu (1978) with Nutan Prasad and Narayana Rao, O Inti Bhaagotham (1980) with Chandramohan, Talluri Krishnakumari, Nagamalli (1980) with Chandramohan and Mallika, and Punyabhumi Kallu Therichindi which ran into censor problems.

Page Two  : Aswini Dutt and Roja Ramani share their experiences