Continued from the part 1:
GLORIOUS PAST:
One who watches MOVIES of yester years on small screen, sitting
at home realises that there has been something special about those
old films that helped Telugu cinema attain glory. That was a golden
period for Telugu cinema. Even those films that flopped at box
office, at that time, hold our attention now on the small screen,
purely because of the sincere efforts put in by the stalwarts
of the past. Stories were prepared much ahead of shooting schedules.
Screenplay and dialogue were kept ready before the film went to
sets. Element of sincerity prevailed in making a film. So was
the involvement of all the artistes and technicians. Scenes were
rehearsed in advance. The word `quality' occupied their mind.
A recapitulation of what went into Telugu cinema during its first
fifty years will reveal heroic struggles of filmmakers, to render
their product interesting and message oriented. As we move back
into moorings of Telugu cinema, we feel proud of its achievements
as some of them are pioneering.
RAGHUPATI
VENKAYYA:
The Andhra Pradesh State Government instituted an award for persons
for outstanding contribution to the overall growth of Telugu cinema
over years and named it after the late Raghupati Venkaiah, who
is regarded as pioneer and is hailed as TELUGU CHALANACHITRA
PITAMAHA. A look at his life reveals how he toiled to lay
foundation to the film industry, right from his of 17, when he
first took to photography. That was in the year 1886. In 1910
he got an imported Chromo Megaphone and some films of 4,000-ft
length and began exhibiting them to the wonder sticken audience.
It was Chris Green who invented a camera in 1887 that can take
pictures with high speed, in a series. Later an American scientist
by name Edison constructed a cine-projector, which he called Kinetoscope.
It was Dadabhai Phalke who first made a silent film `Harischandra'
in 1912 and exhibited. The silent film has no language and has
universal appeal particularly if they are mythologicals or of
Godmen. The life of Jesus Christ was the first English film Dada
Sahib saw and got inspired by it and then came out with `Harischandra'.
He released it in May 17, 1913. In order to stand the competition
of theatre with plays running for six hours, he publicised his
film saying that it had Fifty Seven Thousand photographs and was
two mile long. The Phalke Distribution Company sent silent films
like `Krishna Janma', `Kaleeyamardana', `Savitri',
and 'Lanka Dahanam' to south as well as West.
This was also the time when Raghupati Venkayya was doing experiments
in parallel. In fact he was ahead of the others. He belonged to
a family of army men and was the brother of Raghupati Venkataratnam
Naidu, well known scholar and reformer. After some experiments
with Chromo Megaphone, it is said that he entertained King George
the Vth. He also added sound to the visual. He equipped himself
with a touring tent and began showing films to the audience. Encouraged
by the response, he constructed a theatre at Madras in 1912 and
named it Geity. He exhibited silent movies there. Construction
of Crown and Globe theatres followed. He then sent his son Prakash
to England to learn cinematography art. And Venkaiah constructed
a studio, after Prakash's return, and named it Star of the East.
He made GAJENDRAMOKSHAM, BHISHMA PRATIGJNA, NANDANAR
AND MATSYAVATARAM - all silent movies. He launched Guaranteed
Pictures Corporation and joined hands with A.Narayan of Tamil
film field and launched General Film Corporation. With Narayana,
he made silent movies - 'Viswamitra', 'Mayamadhusudana',
'Pandava Nirvahana' and 'Raj of Rajasthan'. Venkayya
died at the age of 69, in 1929, but after passing over his knowledge
and responsibilities to son Prakash.
PRAKASH:
Prakash became an actor too starring in BHISMA PRATIGJNA,
made by his father. Thus he was forerunner among film heroes and
directors. C.Pulliah and Y.V.Rao were his students who latter
became legends themselves. A story is narrated about Prakash'
capacity of deep observation. When he was working under Cecil
Be De Mill, renowned film maker for his film TEN COMMANDMENTS,
Prakash noticed immunisation marks for smallpox on the bare hand
of one of the artistes and immediately brought it to the director's
notice. This being period film, that too Biblical when such immunisation
poke marks were not there, Cecil Be De Mill instantly acknowledged
and appreciated Prakash. Pullaih's era like that of his guru Prakash,
was an experimental one, himself doing unbelievable things with
his camera, using it as a camera and then as a projector. He used
to project the film on a white washed wall. Hence it earned the
name as `Godameedi Bomma' (film on the wall). He made 'Bhakta
Markandeya' in the vicinity of Kakinada with Kakinada Rajaratnam
playing an important role. She was the first heroine of Telugu
cinema.
To
be continued.........
(Next Monday, Sri Gudipoodi Srihari will talk about Theatre
Influence on Telugu Cinema and Nagaiah's Entry: Eventful Decade
etc.)
Click
here to read the interview of Sri gudipoodi Srihari
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