An actor par excellence!

Vijayawada: Rich and metallic voice, natural style of acting, stunning personality are the main ingredients of K Raghunadha Reddy, who performed in more than 75 plays and 400 movies besides 50 TV serials and 50 ad films. The 72-year-old Raghunadha Reddy actively shared his experiences in theatre as well as in movies with 'The Hans India'.

"In fact, I am not keen about drama because I was fascinated towards sports in my earlier days. But with the influence of my mentors Srihari Murthy and T Sivarama Krishna, it made me shift to acting," said Raghunadha Reddy

"When I was working in Lallaguda workshop of South Central Railway, both legendary persons asked me to act in the play 'Aakasa Ramanna' written by Bellamkonda Ramadasu. That was my first play and I received excellent appreciations from all sections of people. It was the turning point in my life."

"Since then, I acted in many plays like 'Punarapi jananam', 'Sandhya Chaya', 'Dharmo Rakshita Rakshita', 'Pallavi', 'Amma', 'Go to hell', 'Black mail', 'Rependi', 'Vinasayacha drushkrutam', 'Muhammad bin Tughlaq', 'Manasuna veligina deepalu', 'Salabhanjikalu', 'Rani Rudrama', 'Sri Krishna Tulabharam'," said the veteran actor.

"My first attempt to participate in drama competitions started with HMT Parishad. Surprisingly, I received the best actor award in the same competitions," he said.

It is not exaggerated to mention that some of the characters were elevated with the performance of Raghunadha Reddy.

Raghunadha Reddy was born in Kunderu of Krishna district to Krishna Reddy and Samrajyamma. He had his education in Vijayawada and Machilipatnam. He was blessed with one son and two daughters. He received many awards from different organisations for his best acting. While he was in Vijayawada, Reddy was very much associated with the organisation 'Jyothirmayi', which was led by Dr P Brahmananda Rao and participated in many drama competitions in the State.

He was very much dedicated to theatre and used to take care of all aspects of the stage without any inhibitions. That friendly nature and cooperative attitude contributed much to the film field.

"Legendary writers Paruchuri Brothers had given an opportunity to act in 'Sarpayagam' movie, which was my entry into film field.

It was happened when my team staging 'Dharmo Rakshita Rakshita' play in 'Paruchuri Raghubabu memorial drama competitions'. I was one of the ten members selected for screen by Parucuri Brothers. Between 'Sarpayagam' and 'Subrahmanyapuram' movies, I acted in more than 400 films like 'Chimaladandu', 'Orey Rickshaw', 'Police', 'Yerrodu', 'Suryaputrulu', 'Preminxhukundam..raa', 'Rowdy Darbar', 'Yuvaratna Ranaa', 'Aranyam', 'M Dharmaraju'. It's my fortune to act in the combination of all big stars like Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Mohan Babu, Venkatesh, Srihari, Brahmanandam, Ali, Srikanth," Raghunadha Reddy recollected his memories.

Unfortunately, Raghunadha Reddy had fallen sick thrice in 2008, 2011 and 2014 and gradually reduced his involvement in movies. Though his producers and directors asked him to continue in movies, he humbly said 'No' to them because he didn't like to cause inconvenience to them.

"I was loved by each and everyone in the film industry including technicians. Another fortune for me is that R Naryana Murthy, Dasari Narayana Rao, Ramanaidu, Mohan Babu were used to create characters for me in their films. I played different roles in movies and received applause from the public and industry too," he humbly said.

While concluding, Raghunadha Reddy expressed his gratitude to the audience for accepting him in all characters and also the film industry for giving opportunity. With great enthusiasm and a smiling face, he said that he would like to do some activity on stage in the coming days.