Hyderabad: Mamidi Harikrishna awarded PhD

Hyderabad: Director of Language and Culture department Mamidi Harikrishna has been awarded a doctoral degree by the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University.

He has completed the doctoral research under Dr Bhattu Ramesh on topic "Folklore Elements in Telugu Cinema- A study."

Harikrishna said film production started in the country by Dada Saheb Phalke kickstarting films in 1931 after the film production started in 1896. The first film started in 1931 with 'Bhakta Prahlada', and in 90 years of the industry more than 8,600 films were produced in Telugu.

That apart, the folk genre films started with the production of 'Gulebhakavali" in 1938 and went on to impact even recent films like "Bahubali".

He said research was meant to explore the impact of folk genre on the Telugu film industry from a comprehensive and historical perspective.

That apart, it also highlights how the folk stories have come to appear as the main story themes for films in different countries internationally; how a similar development has taken place in films in different Indian languages, besides, Telugu

films have come under appreciation of examiners. Further, the way the doctoral thesis has explored the usage of 24 crafts in production of folk-themed films makes it different and stands as a resource and reference book for future researchers. The researcher attempted an innovative aspect of studying Telugu films from the folk tradition perspective is also appreciated by examiners.