| Aluri Chakrapani | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 5, 1908 Guntur, Andhra Pradesh |
| Died | September 24, 1975 |
| Occupation | film director, writer, film producer |
Aluri Chakrapani or Aluri Venkata Subbarao (August 5, 1908 - September 24, 1975) was a multilingual genius and a popular writer and director of South Indian films.
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Aluri was born in Itanagar village near Tenali, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, in a middle class agricultural family.
He learnt Hindi under the tutelage of the well-known poet Vraj Nandan Sharma.[1] Later, he taught himself Sanskrit and English and soon mastered both the languages.[2]
Chakrapani fell ill with Tuberculosis in 1932 and had to stay at Madanapalle sanatorium for medical treatment. He learnt Bengali during that time from another inmate recuperating from the illness. Initially, he started translating novels from Bengali to Telugu. His translations of the novels of Sharat Chandra Chatterji became so popular in Telugu, the readers would not believe that the originals were written in Bengali language.
He was closely associated with Nagi Reddy, together they formed the Vijaya Vauhini duo. With his creative mind, he started writing short stories and novels in Telugu. He scripted the film Dharmapatni in 1940 for 'Famous Films', Mumbai. Well-known Telugu film producer B. N. Reddy invited him to Chennai to write the script for Swarga Seema. At this time, he came in contact with Nagi Reddy, became a partner and made movies under Vijaya-Vauhini banner. Together, they made successful movies like Patala Bhairavi, Maya Bazar, Gundamma Katha, Missamma, Shavukaru, and Appu Chesi Pappu Koodu that are still popular with Telugu speaking people. Both made 35 fims in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Oriya and Hindi languages.
Chakrapani came up with the idea of a story book for kids and children, and thus Chandamama was born.[3] Chakrapani made Chandamama popular not only in Telugu language but in ten other Indian languages.[4] He started in 1934 the monthly publication of Yuva magazine from Chennai which was later shifted to Hyderabad. Well-known writer Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao was a partner in this venture.