Mullapudi Venkata Ramana - Association With Bapu

Association With Bapu

Sri. Ramana’s association with Sri. Bapu on a career plane has added 60 years. They first met in 1942 in P.S. High School, Madras where they studied standards V and VI and then continued schooling at Kesari High School. Ramana’s first short story 'Amma Maata Vinakapothe' was published in 1945 in 'Bala', a children's magazine published by Radio Annayya (Nyayapathi Raghava Rao), he was 14 then. 'Bapu' illustraed the story. His paintings were liked and that was the beginning of their long standing association.

While Bapu achieved much of his fame sticking to a subtle style of artistic elegance, Ramana announced his entry through a bunch of talkative characters, who try to make no sense out of the sensible world around them, because of their askew point of view. Beginning as an illustrator-story writer team and then turning into a film-director-writer duo, they have contributed immensely to the enrichment of Telugu cultural ethos through literature and cinema

Sri. Ramana provided an able foil, providing script/dialogue that suited bapu's visuals and this celebrated friendship and professional associatioon made some very meaningful social films yet decent hits like 'Radha Kalyanam', 'Vamsa Vruksham', 'Pelli Pustakam', 'Mr. Pellam', 'Sundarkanda', 'Radhaagopalam'.

'MuthyalaMuggu' is one of the path breaking films of yesteryears but the characters, story is very relevant even today. This film launched 'Ravu Gopalarao' in a negative role who soon became most sought after actor in negative roles for next 20 years. The dialogues by Sri.Ramana for this film were run away hit with all generations alike and popular even now.