One can't stop ending up shedding tears when one watch tragic classics like 'Laila Majnu', 'Ambika Pati', 'Amaraavati' and 'Anarkali'. All the films that belong to this genre, begins with a rosy love story and ends up with the lovers opting the suicide as the last resort. The theme of these stories is 'The Destiny of Love is Death'. Even 'Devadasu' belongs to this genre.

PC Baruva produced the original 'Devidasu' in Hindi. In 1937, this film was remade into Tamil. CV Rao played the role of 'Devadasu'. Incidentally CV is the director of this film too. GP Rajani acted as 'Parvati'.

In the year 1953, Telugu film industry was going through a boom. Rama Krishna's 'Bratuku Teruvu', Bhanumati's 'Chandi Rani', Krishna Swamy's 'Gumasta', KS Prakas Rao's 'Kanna Talli', Kaduru Nagabhushanam's 'Lakshmi', YV Rao's 'Manjari', Nagayya's 'Naa Illu', LV Prasad's 'Paradesi' and 'Penpudu Koduku', T Prakas rao's 'Pichi Pullayya' and P Pullayya's 'Pakkinti Ammai' were the films released in that year along with 'Devadasu'. At that time Raj Kapoor and Nargis's 'Aag' was dubbed as 'Premalekhalu' and it was doing well. BN Saroja and Prem Nazir's 'Tandri' and Madhuri Devi and Natarajan's 'Rohini' were the other dubbed films that did well in that year.

In this context Devadasu's shooting was started. Chakrapani has translated a Bengali Navel and produced this film. PC Baruva's 'Devadasu' was released in 1935. KL Sigel and Jamuna acted in the main roles. They used modern techniques like Close-up and Montage shots. Even the Telugu version is no less compared to it's Hindi original. Hero of the film Akkineni Nageswara Rao's role was very similar to the roles he played in the earlier films. He was labeled as the tragedy king. It was a cake walk for Akkineni to do this role of 'Devadasu'. He got accolades for his performance in 'Devadasu'. Akkineni is modest in saying that 'Devadasu' is the product of team work. "Vendantamgaru used to make me stay awake during nights and shoot the scenes as he believed that kick of liquor can be seen in the eyes of Devadasu during night time" admits Akkineni.

Everybody knew the story of 'Devadasu' before the release of film. A poor girl falls in love with a rich guy. Parents of the rich guy will not agree to get them married. As a result the poor girl gets married to a rich old man. Later on there were a couple of films by Akkineni done in the same genre. They are Prem Nagar and Premabhishekam. The character of Parvati was transformed into the characters of 'Latha' and 'Devi'.

Devadasu was one of the most memorable films for Telugu people. The songs in this film are popular even today. 'Jagame Maayaa', 'Palleku Podam .. Paarunu Choodaam', 'Kudi Edamaithe' are the few unforgettable song of Devadasu.Major credit goes to Ghantasala, the singer and CR Subbaram, the music director.

In 1955, Vedantam Raghavayya produced another love film, Anarkali. This film is another musical hit. Vedantam repeated Akkineni in almost all the films produced by him. One cannot forget the histrionic performance f Akkineni in 'Anarkali', 'Bhale Ramudu', 'Suvarna Sundari' and 'Bhale Ammailu'. But in 'Chiranjeevulu', another film by Vedantam, NTR too acted with Akkineni. Jamuna was the heroine in that film.

Another Gem of the film 'Devadasu' is Savitri, who brought life to the character 'Parvati'. Her performance in this film won her a lot of accolades and future films.