News : TANA convention takes off

17th TANA Convention takes off in Chicago

Related Gallery : TANA Banquet Gallery

Telugu Association of North America (TANA), which had been conducting nationwide conventions in the USA every alternate year since 1977, has launched its 17th convention on July 2, 2009 at Rosemont Convention Center near Chicago. While the official convention starts on July 3 with formal inaugural events, July 2nd marked the Banquet Dinner for invitees and other attendees.

The night was glittery of stars and starlets all over the place. Seen around were singers Mano, Suneetha, Vijayalakshmi, lyricists sirivennela Seetarama Sastry, Suddala Ashokteja, Andesri, artistes Muralimohan, AVS, Uttej, Raghubabu, Maharshi Raghava, Navneet Kaur, Kamna Jethmalani, Apoorva, Rajitha, Jhansi, Gollapudi Marurthi Rao, Ravi Varma, singer-music director R.P. Patnaik, writer-actor Paruchuri Gopalakrishna, actor-producer Meer Abdulla, producer Ravi Vallabhaneni, and other literary and culturally representative personalities of Telugu. Obviously, with so many stars donning the banquet, over 2000 people thronged in the banquet hall. A few politicians including ministers Galla Aruna Kumari and Mopidevi Venkataramana, MLAs Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Yarrabelli Dayakar Rao, and MP Anjan Kumar Yadav were also seen.

The day's events were entertainment, awards ceremony, and dinner, where entertainment was catered to different tastes and kinds. Classical dance performance, old and new song renditions by upcoming local artistes and singer Vijayalakshmi, mime news reading (popularized at the Telugu Cinema Vajrotsavam by Sunil), artistic creativity by 'Mimicry' Sreenivas not through his vocal talents but using newspaper and folding it to form various caps and hats. Vijayalakshmi should be particularly mentioned, since she came back to the dais after dinner was over trying to get back the audience into the mood of enjoyment. Eminent individuals who served people in USA and India by way of considerable donations/charity, arts and culture, etc. were felicitated by the Governer of Illinois, Patt Quinn.

Muralimohan speaks at TANA '09

Muralimohan spoke at the occasion, noting that TANA had done such great conventions since its inception and that any others that might want to imitate but will only end up as poor imitators. (For the uninitiated, TANA had internal poltical issues last year, and another group called North America Telugu Sangham, or NATS for short, has come out of it. Their convention is also during the same days in Orlando, Florida.)

July 3rd and 4th are going to be more star-studded with S.P.B., Chandrabose, Gorati Venkanna, and others added to the list of attendees. A long line of film-based, cultural, and literary events are to be conducted these two days, along with TANA-MAA TV Super Singers competition.

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