Legendary theatre artist Bellary Raghava remembered: Collector

Anantapur: The birth anniversary celebrations of legendary theatre artist Bellary Raghava celebrated at the local LKP Theatre here on Saturday. Several cultural artists were also felicitated on the occasion.

Elaborating on the legendary personality, District Collector Sathyanarayana observed that Bellary Raghava was a Telugu and Kannada theatre personality. He was an actor, playwright, and director.

Raghava was born on 2nd of August 1880 into a family that was associated with theatre and his uncle Dharmavaram Ramakrishnamacharyulu was a famous Telugu playwright and actor. Bellary Raghava, whose original name was Tadipatri Raghavacharyulu, was a law graduate from the Madras University.

He was introduced to the stage by his uncle. He groomed actors to focus less on long drawn out dialogues and more on conveying emotions through expressions and language, in addition to regular dialogues. He also insisted that women should play the female lead, as opposed to the practice of men playing female leads that was prevalent back then.

The cultural giant was interested in bringing theatrical ideas from other countries to his stage, and he visited London and met famous English theatre personalities like Bernard Shaw, Laurence Olivier and Forbes-Robertson.

He staged the play 'Tappevaridi' (Whose Fault Is It?) by Rajamannar in Madras. This play was heralded for bringing in a new era in Indian theatre. His foray into cinema was not a success and he was not comfortable with the new medium and returned to the stage.

Bellary Raghava was famous for the many memorable roles that he played on the stage. He played the role of Shivaji in Shivaji-Roshanara, Vipranarayana in Prataparudriyam, and Chanakya in Chandragupta.

The theatre artist also took on negative roles like those of Hiranyakashipu in Bhakta Prahalada and the part of the traitor Pathan Rustum in the Fall of Vijayanagara. He started a night school for Harijans. He brought in new life into Kannada and Telugu theatre and is still held in great regard for his contributions.