Bhaskar Parichha
Hundred fifty-odd movies, India’s top film award, a large film family to fall back on and an institution – that, in sum, was the exclusivity of veteran film producer Daggubati Ramanaidu (1936-2015) who passed away in Hyderabad. He was rightly called the “Movie Mogul” because he produced films in all the official languages of India, earning him that name.
Naidu was a Guinness and Limca Book record holder for the most feature films made by an individual. He produced films in 13 languages—Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Odia, Gujarati, Assamese, Punjabi and English. That is a rare feat in cinema by any standard.
Ramanaidu migrated to Madras in the early sixties to set up a brick factory. But he turned out to be a film factory. Ramanaidu worked with all leading film actors of the south- whether he is N.T. Rama Rao, A. Nageswara Rao, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sreedevi, Jayapradha, Madhuri Dixit and Sushmita Sen. He gave such Telugu hits such as Prem Nagar, Soggadu, Prema Mandiram, Drohi, Bobbili Raja, Kaliyuga Pandavulu, Aha Na Pellanta, Indrudu Chandrudu, Papa Kosam, Preminchu and most recently Gopala Gopala, starring younger son D. Venkatesh and Pawan Kalyan. His Hindi hits include Tohfa, Insaf ki Awaaz and Maqsad. Ramayanadu made a film with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s too – titled Thirumaangalyam (1974). Naidu’s Kannada films include Thavarumane Udugore (1991) starring Malasree, Srikanth; Maduve Agona Baa (2001) with Shivaraj Kumar and Laya as lead players. D Rana who has acted in Hindi films like Baby, Dum Maaro Dum and Leader is Ramanaidu’s grandson.
Hailing from an agricultural family in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, Ramanaidu, a college dropout, dabbled in different businesses—transport, rice mill, tobacco production and brick making, before venturing into film production. His first film, Anuragam, which he co-produced with a relative under the ‘Anuroopa’ banner, failed at the box office. To recoup losses, Ramanaidu started Suresh Productions in 1964 and produced the banner’s first film, Ramudu Bheemudu.
The film featured legendary Telugu actor N.T. Rama Rao in two roles. The film became a hit, heralding Ramanaidu’s arrival in the film industry. Suresh Productions Pvt. Ltd, named after his elder son, D. Suresh Babu, has 155 films to its credit. It is one of the most successful Telugu film banners.
Naidu’s production house has exhibited over 1,500 films and runs 400 movie theatres across the country- no mean achievement. Naidu’s focus was always on the story. He had an excellent nose to judge a film for its success. He proved beyond doubt that the producer is the most influential person in the movie business. All others come next. During his first decade, Ramanaidu made family dramas and mythological films. He also introduced 11 heroines, 20 directors and innumerable comedians.
Dr D Ramanaidu has produced, processed, edited, printed and distributed all his films on his own. This is one of the key reasons for investing, developing and operating state of the art film infrastructure at Ramanaidu Studios.
Awards came his way naturally-National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali – Asukh – 1999, Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu) – Jeevana Tarangalu (1973), Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu) – Soggadu (1976) and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South (2000). Akkineni Nageshwara Rao and Dr. D Rama Naidu got a compliment at IFFI 2013 Goa. ANR and RN being the two legends from Telugu, ANR’s 1953 classic ‘Devadasu’ and Rama Naidu’s 1971 love drama ‘Prem Nagar’, which also had ANR as the lead incidentally were screened. He was conferred Raghupathi Venkaiah Award in 2006, the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 2009 for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema’s growth and development and the Padma Bhushan in 2013.
As they say charity begins at home. So, he established the Rama Naidu Charitable Trust in 1991 and contributed a substantial part of his earnings to numerous philanthropic purposes. Like most film personalities in the South, Ramanaidu dabbled briefly in politics. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 from the Bapatla constituency on a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket.
Actor Kamal Haasan’s tribute to Ramaniadu was striking: ‘It would be unjust to introduce Ramanaidu gaaru to the next generation as a Tamil or Telugu film producer. He is much more than that. National cinema sprang from Chennai and D. Ramanaidu was one of its doyens. He has left a great legacy behind.’
