Tollywood - Cast and Crew

Cast and Crew

Chittor V. Nagaiah was one of the most influential actors of South Indian cinema. S. V. Ranga Rao is one of the first Indian actors of the time to receive international award at Indonesian Film Festival, held in Jakarta for Narthanasala in 1963. N. T. Rama Rao was one of the most commercially successful Telugu actors of his time. K. N. T. Sastry and Pattabhirami Reddy have garnered international recognition for their pioneering work in Parallel Cinema. Adurthi Subba Rao, has garnered eight National Film Awards, the highest individual awards in Telugu cinema, for his pioneering work as a director. Akkineni Kutumba Rao's Patha Nagaramlo Pasivadu received Cairo International Film Festival's, Merit Certificate for best feature.

Dasari Narayana Rao has directed the most number of films in Telugu, he directed Meghasandesam, which got critical acclaim at Cannes and Moscow Film Festival. Actor and producer, Krishna Ghattamaneni is credited with producing many technological firsts in Telugu film Industry like the first eastman color film Eenadu (1982), the first Cinemascope film Alluri Seetharama Raju, first 70mm film Simhasanam, first DTS film Telugu Veera Levara (1988) and introducing cowboy and James Bond styles to the Telugu screen.

Emergence of director Jandhyala in the 1980s saw the growth of comedy film genre in Telugu cinema. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and Ram Gopal Varma have garnered unique identity for bringing out new genre in Telugu film making. Contemporary film maker's like Sekhar Kammula, Chandra Sekhar Yeleti, Mohan Krishna Indraganti, Deva Katta, G. Neelakanta Reddy and Narasimha Nandi have made their mark among the Indian panorama sections of the International Film Festival of India in the last decade.

Noted film editor from the state, A. Sreekar Prasad, known for his initial works in Telugu films of the 1980s, has garnered national recognition for film editing across multiple languages of Indian cinema. S. V. Ranga Rao, Kanta Rao, Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, Savitri and Sobhan Babu are the actors who received the erstwhile Rashtrapati Award for best performance in a leading role. Sharada, Archana, Vijayashanti and P. L. Narayana are the actors to receive the National Film Award for best performance in acting from this industry. Chiranjeevi, was listed among "The men who changed the face of the Indian Cinema" by IBN-live India.

Brahmanandam, a Telugu actor, holds a Guinness World Record for acting in the most films in the same language. S.P. Balasubrahmanyam is a multilingual playback singer from Telugu film industry has won National Film Awards across four languages. He holds the record of having recorded the most number of songs for any male playback singer and has received 25 Nandi Awards from Andhra Pradesh. Sri Sri was one of the influential Telugu film lyricists of his time, who garnered national honours like Sahitya Akademi Award, Best Lyricist and Soviet Land Nehru Award for his pioneering work in Telugu poetry and film lyrics.

Susarla Dakshinamurthi, Parupalli Ramakrishnaiah Pantulu, Ogirala Ramachandra Rao, Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, Tanguturi Suryakumari, and Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna are one of the influential music composers of south Indian cinema. Music composers such as Pendyala Nageswara Rao, R. Sudarshanam and R. Goverdhanam duo made contribution to folklore and mythological films. Madhavapeddi Satyam, P. Adinarayana Rao, Gali Penchala Narasimha Rao, Chellapilla Satyam, P. B. Sreenivas, S. P. Kodandapani, G. K. Venkatesh, S. Hanumantha Rao, have contributed their work extensively for films with social relevance themes. Ghantasala, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela, S. Janaki, M. M. Keeravani, Ramesh Naidu etc., are some of the musicians and playback singers from Andhra Pradesh to receive National recognition. R. P. Patnaik is the current president of Andhra Pradesh Cine Music Association.