Stars : Star Profiles : Adivishnu remembers Jandhyala

I don't exactly remember when Jandhyala and I met, but I do remember that he was a college-going student in Vijayawada then. I met him at Srirama Book Depot there. When the shop owner introduced me to him, he was very excited and hugged me, telling me that I was his favorite writer! I heard it often back then, but I was still quite happy to hear that, and I liked him, don't know why. We slowly became good friends ...I used to call him Sastry, choosing the last part of his long name, but slowly I started calling him Jandhyala too, when he became popular thus. I was older than he, and I entered the filmdom before he did, but that didn't stop us from being good friends, and we stayed so for the next thirty years, until his sad demise.

It's almost become a rule that a person sees the stars more than the earth when the person grows big. Jandhyala is surely an exception to this rule. He became a big, popular director, but he was the same as a person, like he was as a student. And, on any occasion, he always mentioned took an opportunity to mention that I was his favorite writer and that he was inspired by comedy in my stories. There were people that I introduced to him - they turned star comedians later, and they started ignoring my very presence many a time! In fact, Jandhyala used to tell me that such a thing would happen with some people, and it always did! He is a genius who can also read people, but he was never anything like any of them, and stayed a good friend and philosopher to me.

Ramanaidu once felicitated Jandhyala in a big way at Rail Nilayam, on the occasion of Hasyotsavam organized by Jandhyala himself with almost all comedians of Telugu Cinema. After the felicitation, Ramanaidu remembered the film Aha! Naa Pellanta! and called both of us on to the stage, praising us for making such a film. (The movie was based on Adivishnu's story "Satyam Gaarillu".) After the meeting, Jandhyala reminded me of a story that I narrated to him long back, and asked me to tell the same to Ramanaidu. Before I did that, Jandhyala passed away, and I never narrated the story to Ramanaidu. Another such unfinished plan with him was a movie for M.S. Reddy, which he planned to complete in 24 hours. We were even paid advances and we worked on the script too, but the project got postponed... forever.

When I wanted to resign my job in APSRTC, he advised me not to. I now realize why, though I didn't understand back then. He's a writer and he could have created his own stories, but he made me write for some of his films. When I asked why, he replied that he loved my writings. ...Our story discussions and dialogue discussions were very different. We both sat with his first associate director in a room, switch on a tape recorder, and start discussing about the project from evening to early morning hours, and finalized the "good" dialogues from those recorded the previous day. ...In the movie Hai Hai Nayaka!, he was careful enough to show my credits in the titles exactly when the words "guruvanTE gunDraayi kaadu" sounded in the background song!

...When Sutti Veerabhadra Rao, a common friend of ours, passed away, Jandhyala called me and told me that we should go to Madras, without actually giving me a reason. Knowing that he was busy with a shooting, I simply asked him when the flight was, and he asked me to come to the airport right away, and told the news to me there. I was shocked and asked him why he didn't tell me earlier, and he replied that he wanted someone like him to be with me when he hears the news as I might be unable to control myself. ...Vinnakota Vijayaram, another common friend passed away once, and Jandhyala stayed with me then too. I wondered aloud as to why a simple, good person like Vijayaram should have died, and Jandhyala philosophically said it was all maaya. The same maaya took his life in June the same year! And I can't even understand still, as to how I could take the news of Jandhyala's death, when I heard it from another friend Poosala.

He's amarajeevi to us, and stays in the minds of every Telugu person for years to come!

Compiled by Sri Atluri

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