Mullapudi Venkata Ramana


Mullapudi Venkata Ramana was a Telugu story writer. He was especially known for his hilarious style of writing. He also created a child character called Budugu. Many other memorable characters like Radha, Gopalam, Contractor, Tutti in modern Telugu literature/cinema flew from this master writer's pen.
Mullapudi was the dialogue, story and screenplay writer for many of the movies that came as a Bapu-Ramana combination. He was versatile in penning both heart-touching and rib-tickling dialogues.

Biography

Early life

Sri. Mullapudi Venkata Ramana was born in a middle-class traditional family and his childhood mostly spent in a tiny village called Dowleswaram near Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. Ramana had one elder sister and a younger brother. It was a happy family with no troubles until his father expired when Ramana was 9 years old. This turned their status upside down and they shifted to Chennai for better opportunities. Ramana's mother Mrs. Adilakshmi took all the pains to raise the family in such situation. Ramana's education and career happened in Madras. During his study days, Ramana had shown penchant for literature in Telugu and inclination in writing up short, effective storylines.
During the same period, he got a good friend in 'Bapu'. Their friendship was unconditional and mutually expending talents as Ramana is good at write-ups whereas Bapu is good at painting and caricature drawing. Soon they excelled in their talents and gave some of the most admirable Telugu films later in their life.
Katha Ramaneeyam' Part-1 each have around 40 stories off 8 chapters each of them representing one of Navarasams. Some of them were made Films later viz. Seetha Kalyanam, Bhogimanta, Swayamvaram etc..
Katha Ramaneeyam' Part-2 having about 45 stories some of which representing Indian middle-class' tryst with life in hilarious way. While others pointing out the superstitions in our society, treatment of underprivileged in society which are definitely thought provoking.
Runanandalahiri is representation of average Indians, leading life in the times of inflation, joblessness, less privileged society and their tryst with their lives' problems. Sri. Ramana himself suffered such upsets in his life and even frank enough that some characters inspired from his own sufferings but dealt with in a humorous way.

Career

After completing SSLC in Madras, Ramana had to do many odd jobs before starting as a reporter for then-popular newspaper Andhra Patrika in 1953. Here he got the opportunity to interact with eminent writers of Telugu literature like Nanduri Ramamohana Rao, Pilaka Ganapati Sastri, Surampudi Seetaram etc. who were working for the same newspaper.
Sri. Ramana was first working for the "Daily" section of the newspaper and then shifted to "Weekly" section. While working here, his stories for children in the name of 'Budugu' were published and became very popular. He authored these stories to present the views of the little kids off their elders in the family. These stories are humorous, informative, knowledgeable to children and at the same time helping the elderly to know the thought process of their kids. Later, these stories were published in the form of a book, which was well received.
While writing for the "Cinema Page" section in the paper, Ramana's short and crisp writing helped him to gain popularity for his film reviews. That was the same time when he got introduced to film industry and befriended the famous stars of film fraternity. He got introduced to some great directors of those times, Adurthi SubbaRao and Dundi, who encouraged him to work for films. RakthaSambandam was his first break as a writer; since then he never lagged in his progress as story, screenplay, dialogue writer.

Films

Ramana's writing talent highlighted with his movie reviews and stories he wrote for films. Some of the initial films for story, screenplay dialogue Velugu needalu, Kanney manasulu were runaway hits, that has kept Ramana in good stead. Mooga manasulu, Bharya Bharthalu, Velugu Needalu and Teney manasulu have firmly established him as story writer. Some of these films had ANR in the lead and their association brought their talent to the fore.
Soon, he became sought after film story writer and gave up his journalist job at Andhra Patrika. He partnered with his childhood friend Bapu and co-produced their first film Sakshi featuring actor Krishna which got accolades for its storyline and direction.
Bhakta Kannappa with actor Krishnam Raju, who was till then doing villain roles, was a huge hit and gave him stardom. However, the milestone in his career is Sampurna Ramayanam which featured Shoban Babu as Lord Rama turned out to be a major hit and is a masterpiece of Telugu films which is the best representation of the epic 'Ramayana' till today. The music of this film is ever popular and is played in festivals and functions.

Association with Bapu

Sri. Ramana's association with Sri. Bapu has a 60-year career plan. They first met in 1942 in P.S. High School, Madras where they studied V and VI level and then continued schooling at Kesari High School. Ramana's first short story "Amma Maata Vinakapothe" was published in 1945 in Bala, a children's magazine published by Radio Annayya. He was 14 then. Bapu illustrated the story. His paintings were liked and that was the beginning of their long-standing association.
While Bapu achieved much of his fame sticking to a subtle style of artistic elegance, Ramana announced his entry through a bunch of talkative characters, who try to make no sense out of the sensible world around them, because of their askew point of view. Beginning as an illustrator-story writer team and then turning into a film-director-writer duo, they have contributed immensely to the enrichment of Telugu cultural ethos through literature and cinema
Sri. Ramana provided an able foil, providing script/dialogue that suited Bapu's visuals and this celebrated friendship and professional association made some very meaningful social films that were decent hits like Radha Kalyanam, Vamsa Vruksham, Pelli Pustakam, Mr. Pellam, Sundarakanda, and Radhaagopalam.
MuthyalaMuggu is one of the path-breaking films of yesteryear as the characters and story are even relevant today. This film launched Ravu Gopalarao in a negative role who soon became most sought-after actor in negative roles for next 20 years. The dialogues by Sri. Ramana were a runaway hit with all generations alike and popular even now.

Television

During the years 1985–90, Sri Ramana and Sri Bapu made videos for school subjects for children on television. At the behest of then the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. N.T RamaRao, Bapu-Ramana made these education videos which were aired by Doordarshan in Telugu were very popular. The same were later dubbed and aired by National Doordarshan. A.R. Rahaman, the present day music maestro, was then an upcoming drummer, providing background music for few of these videos.
In this millennium, the magic of the Bapu-Ramana combination provided their expertise for the mega mythology serial Bhagavatham on ETV. Etv Sri Bhagavatam serial cast : Arun Govil as Dasavatara and Maha Vishnu, Sunil Kumar Sharma as Rama and Krishna, Gargi Roy Chaudhury as Sita and Rukhmini, Sharmilee Raj as SatyaBhama and Bhudevi, Bhavana as Jambavati, Sana as Yashodha, AVS as Narada, etc.,. It was well received by audience and firmly scaled up TRPs for the channel. Also directed Sri Venkateswara Vaibhavam for SVBC-TTD Channel by Bapu Ramana with SaiKiran, Mounica, Ashmita.,.

Autobiography

Kothi Kommachi, Inkothi Kommachi and Mukkothi Kommachi are Ramana's three-volume autobiography in books and audio forms. Just like the titles, the story keep hopping timelines and incidents. To put it in Ramana's own words, "it is like a monkey hopping from one branch to another branch."

Awards

Though Sri. Ramanas' career has many faces – journalist, story teller, film critic, film story writer, dialogue writer and a popular film personality who represented a genre that produced the finest work in film arts, literature, journalism – many are dissatisfied that he hasn't been nominated for Padma awards, instituted by Government of India. His humble background and disinclination to associate with any political party could have been the reason for this.
However, he received endless appreciation of the Telugu people for his excellent work and has made a respectable place in their hearts. He is one of those who kept the flag of Telugu pride flying high.
Ramana died of old-age related illness in Chennai on 24 February 2011. At the time of the death, he just completed the work for another mythological film Sri RamaRajyam.

Filmography

This is partial list of his films. Kindly help expanding it.
YearFilmLanguageCredits
1960Rakta SambandhamTeluguDialogues
1961Iddaru MitruluTeluguDialogues
1963Mooga ManasuluTeluguWriter
1964Velugu NeedaluTeluguDialogues
1964Daagudu MootaluTeluguWriter
1965Preminchi ChooduTeluguDialogues
1965Tene ManasuluTeluguStory and Dialogues
1966Kanne ManasuluTeluguStory and Dialogues
1966NavarathriTeluguDialugues
1967Poola RangaduTeluguStory
1967Prana MitruluTeluguStory and Dialogues
1967SaakshiTeluguWriter
1968Bangaru PichikaTeluguWriter
1969BuddhimantuduTeluguStory and Screenplay
1969KathanayakuduTeluguStory
1970Balaraju KathaTeluguDialogues
1971Bhale RangaduTeluguStory
1971Sampoorna RamayanamTeluguWriter
1972KathanayakuduTeluguStory
1973Andala RamuduTeluguWriter
1975Muthyala MugguTeluguWriter
1976Bhakta KannappaTeluguWriter
1976Jeevan JyotiHindiStory
1976Seetha KalyanamTeluguWriter
1978Gorantha DeepamTeluguStory, Screenplay and Dialugues
1978Mana Voori PandavuluTeluguDialogues
1980Hum PaanchHindiScreenplay
1980Kaliyuga RavanaasuruduTeluguWriter
1980Rajadhi RajuTeluguStory, Screenplay and Dialogues
1980Vamsa VrukshamTeluguScreenplay and Dialogues
1981Radha KalyanamTeluguWriter
1981TyagayyaTeluguWriter
1982Pelleedu PillaluTeluguStory and Dialogues
1983Manthrigari ViyyankuduTeluguWriter
1985BulletTeluguStory, Screenplay and Dialogues
1985JackieTeluguWriter
1986Kalyana TamboolamTeluguWriter
1991Pelli PusthakamTeluguDialogues, Screenplay and Dialogues
1993Mr. PellamTeluguWriter
1993Srinatha Kavi SarvabhowmuduTeluguWriter
1994Pelli KodukuTeluguWriter
1996RambantuTeluguWriter
2005Radha GopalamTeluguStory, Screenplay and Dialogues
2008SundarakandaTeluguStory, Screenplay and Dialogues
2011Sri Rama RajyamTeluguStory and Dialogues