A great loss to T-town

Dasari Narayana Rao, the legendary Indian film director, producer, actor and a multifaceted personality left a vacuum in terms of thematic and hard hitting movies in T-town. He has directed more than 150-odd films in varied genres and proved that even non-starrer movies could spin box office magic in 70’s and 80’s.

Even though he started his film career as a dialogue writer with ‘Jagat Jettilu’ and ‘Hanthakulu Devanthakulu,’ he made his directorial debut with ‘Thatha Manavadu’ in 1973 and didn’t look back ever since.

He swept the viewers off their feet in the 1970s and 80s by exploring varied themes including population explosion, unemployment, middle class values, gender inequality, corruption and enlightened the cinegoers and others with his thought-provoking films. For instance, in ‘Thatha Manavaudu’ and ‘Samsaram Sagaram (1974), he depicted the breakdown of joint family system and population explosion respectively.

He also worked with all the leading actors of those times like NT Rama Rao, ANR, Krishna, Sobhan Babu, Krishnam Raju and Murali Mohan and carved a niche for himself. He also directed the next generation stars like Chiranjeevi (‘Lankeswarudu’), Balakrishna (‘Param Veer Chakra’) and ‘Majnu’ with Akkineni Nagarjuna but tasted ‘mixed’ luck. However, he made one of the most popular female-centric film of all times, ‘Shivaranjani’ (1978) with Jayasudha and set the box office on fire.

Dasari’s success rate with NTR was unbeatable as ‘Manushulantha Okkate’, ‘Sardar Paparayudu’ and ‘Bobbili Puli’ were runaway hits and gave NTR lot of political mileage in the 1983 elections in Andhra Pradesh in which his Telugu Desam Party stormed to power .
He also made memorable movies with thespian Akkineni Nageshwara Rao (ANR) like ‘Devadasu Malli Puttadu’ in 1978, ‘Buchhibabu’ in 1980, ‘Premabhishekam’ in 1981 and ‘Meghasandesam’ in 1982 and ‘Bahudoorapu Baatasari’ in 1983. He depicted ANR in a poignant role as a forlorn drunken lover in ‘Premabhishekam’ which became an evergreen hit.

He also had his share of hits with other stars like Krishna (‘Bandodu-Gundamma’), Sobhan Babu (Gorintaku), followed by ‘Bantrothu Bharya,’ ‘Yavvanam Katesindi,’ ‘Katakatala Rudrayya,

'Rangoon Rowdy, ’ ‘Sitaramulu’ and ‘Thandra Paparayudu’ with rebel star Krishnam Raju. In 1983, he made a film 'MLA Edukondalu' highlighting the evils of political defections. Apart from tasting box office success and earning a big name, he also bagged numerous awards. His film ‘Meghasandesam’ with ANR received critical acclaim at the ninth International Film Festival of India in 1983 and also at the Tashkent Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival the same year.

As a director, he was very strict and firm even with senior artistes.In ‘Vishwavijetha Vijayagadha.’ DNR’s biographer and senior journalist Vinayaka Rao described one such incident.

In his second film ‘SamsaramSagaram’ (1974), Dasari had to confront the legendary SV Ranga Rao, when the latter refused to mouth one lengthy dialogue penned by him as he thought it was unnecessary.

However, an unrelenting Dasari stood his ground and told SVR that he has no option but to repeat the dialogue. An angry SVR walked out of the sets in a huff saying that films would be doomed if all dialogue writers end up as
directors.

The producer of the film K Raghava who got nervous chided Dasari for annoying a senior actor like SVR who agreed to come for shooting after a lot of persuasion on that particular day. He went out chasing SVR behind his car in Madras (now Chennai), caught up with him finally and pleaded with him to come back for the shooting.

SVR reluctantly came back and dubbed the dialogue written by Dasari. Later, DNR went and apologised to SVR for hurting his feelings but the latter praised him for doing a commendable job as director.

In another incident, DNR who was a great fan of character artiste Nagabhushanam, created a special role for him in his maiden venture ‘Thata Manavadu’ and requested him to act in his film.

However, Nagabhushanm who was unhappy with the remuneration that was offered to him, refused to act in the film saying that a senior actor like him should be paid more. Dasari pleaded with him several times but in vain.

Subsequently, Nagabhushanam never got an opportunity to act in any one of Dasari’s films after the incident. Thus, when it came to making films, DNR was very firm in his resolve and commitment, commanded a lot of respect in the film industry.

By B Srinivas Narayana Rao