When Bapu fought with Ramana

People only know about the legendary friendship between the two mavericks, Bapu and Ramana. However, they had their arguments. We revisit a few lesser known incidents from the life of legendary Bapu, as we pay respect to his departed soul

Sattiraju Lakshmi Narayana, fondly called Bapu was a creative colossus. Not only was he an artist who defined Telugu culture and its beauty, he was an acclaimed director and a great humourist. As ace director SS Rajamouli said, his demise has left a void in Telugu film industry. His friendship with Mullapudi Venkata Ramana was well known and the duo has given to Telugu literature, ‘Budugu’ and gave cinema masterpieces like ‘Seetha Kalyanam’, ‘Sampoorna Ramayanam’, ‘Pelli Pustakam’ etc.

It was the year 1967, the artist and writer duo Bapu-Ramana, were busy searching for buyers for Bapu’s debut film as director, ‘Sakshi’. The duo, who were the producers were meeting Bhakta, a noted distributer in Karnataka region. Negotiations were on and Bhakta was about to pay a good sum for the distribution rights in the region. Out of the blue, Bapu said, “Please do consider again… I am not happy with a few parts that I have shot. I could have done better but there was lack of budget… It’s your call any way,” and walked out. Ramana was worried but Bhakta, who was impressed with Bapu’s honesty, bought the film rights and he remained the distributor for Bapu’s until his death.

Prior to Bapu wielding megaphone, early in his career, he worked in a Mumbai-based advertisement firm. A client, who was about to introduce a new product approached the agency to make illustrations and create advertisements. As Bapu was already an ace artist, the client explained to him the product and his requirement and repeated the same again and again. Bapu got up midway and left the meeting saying he had heard everything he had to and there was no need to repeat it again. The client was astounded with Bapu’s behaviour, but a a few days later he was amused and thrilled with the concept and the illustration that Bapu had come up with.

Muppala Ranganayakamma’s ‘Ramayana Vishavruksham’ brought her fame and also gained notoriety as the content miffed traditionalists. Ranganayakamma wanted Bapu to make the cover page and mailed a demand draft to him. A staunch devotee of Lord Rama, Bapu wrote ‘Rama Rama’ on the back of the DD and mailed the same back to her.

Mullapudi Venkataramana in his autobiography series ‘Koti Komachchi’ said that he and Bapu were few of the early ones who were smitten with the prodigious talent of the former world no. 1 chess player Vishwanathan Anand and sponsored him during his early tours.

Bapu’s ‘Seetha Kalyanam’ was a masterpiece; it brought him international fame and is now a part of course at British Film Institute. A fan of Satyajit Ray, Bapu arranged a special screening for him. Ray, who watched the film, had only one thing to say. In a scene where Seetha plays with her friends, there were crotons in the frame, which were out of timeline as they came to India much later. This was the only remark Ray made on the iconic film.

Barring Hindi films of Bapu, Ramana penned story, screenplay and dialogues for all the movies directed by Bapu. Though Aarudra penned dialogues for the mythological films, it was Ramana, who wrote the screenplay. However, ‘Sri Rajeshwari Vilas Coffee Club’, a Vijaya Productions flick remains the only film that Bapu canned without Ramana writing it. Palagummi Padma Raju wrote the story and dialogues while Chakrapani wrote screenplay.

Bapu-Ramana, the duo was a symbol for friendship but they too fought and had not spoken with one another for a few days. Ramana wrote about the incident in his autobiography. It was Ramana’s birthday and he bought for himself 12 cassettes of veena instrumental which has melakartha ragas and was listening to them. Bapu, who stayed on the ground floor, below Ramana’s, was in foul mood and somehow found the music disturbing. There was an argument and tempers flared and they stopped speaking for a few days. However, it was Ramana’s mother who made peace between the friends for life.