Showing all artists born in 1933

Bapu was born on 15 December 1933,in Narsapur, in present-day West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India to Sattiraju Venugopala Rao and Suryakantam. He has worked as a political cartoonist for the newspaper Andhra Patrika in 1945. He holds B.Com (1953) and BL (1955) from University of Madras.

Bapu introduced a painting style of simple bright colours. His unique style consisted of economy of strokes, freehand drawing and a lack of background clutter.

His paintings focus on Hindu mythological characters, and he has painted the Hindu epic Ramayana as a pictorial story. His character portrayals, such as Shiva, Bhima, Duryodhana, look distinctly male with wide chests, large jaws and large biceps; while Krishna and Rama are more feminine in build. Bapu has also introduced a new style of cursive writing in Telugu. The font is his own handwriting and reflects the same simplicity as his art.

Bapu's paintings also decorated the cover pages of many magazines in India and Abroad. Telugu Naadi Magazine published from USA for Telugu audience have published Bapu's great paintings. Bapu also later served on their advisory board to guide and have an outstanding content for the magazine that catered to Telugu people.

The most notable achievement in Bapu's movie making is his success in capturing the nativity of the Telugu people and translating it into visuals. His movies center on realistic family issues and relationships, however his recurring theme is magic realism, with vignettes of mythological characters aiding in the narration.

Most of his movies have a female protagonist; a breakaway style from the formulaic movies that relegate female lead characters to song and dance numbers. His penchant for preserving the Telugu nativity in his movies can be seen in the choice of artists, especially the dusky female leads and weak villains.

Bapu's family was staying in Madras and in 1942, when the Japanese bombed Madras, there was a panic exodus and Bapu's family moved to Narasapuram and stayed there till 1945, when the Second World War ended. Bapu studied in Taylor High School, Narasapuram during these years. Mullapudi Venkataramana's father, who was working as a Sub-Registrar was posted at Narasapuram during the years 1942-45 and so, Venkataramana also studied in Taylor high School, Narasapram, during those years. They were classmates during those three years and that is how their association started. They continued schooling at Kesari High School, Madras. Ramana's first short story 'Amma Maata Vinakapote' was published in 1945 in 'Bala', a children's magazine published by Radio Annayya (Nyayapathi Raghava Rao),he was 14 then. Bapu illustrated the story. That was the beginning of their career as a writer-producer -illustrator- filmmaker duo".

Started 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. When one mentions Bapu, then one is bound to mention Ramana's name too and vice versa. The most notable achievement in his movie making is his success in capturing the nativity of Telugu people and translating it great on-screen visuals. When ever the renowned duo of Bapu and Ramana come together for a project, viewers expect a spectacular visual of nativity with an equally enthralling story-line.

Their mythological ventures like Sampoorna Ramayanam, Ramanjaneya Yuddham and Seeta Kalyanam have been the milestones of Telugu cinema, while historical films like Thyagayya, Bhakta Kannappa and Shreenatha kavisarvabhouma have been hugely successful. Bapu-Ramana combination has created movie magic on the large screen with some of the path breaking films in Telugu cinema and are ever remembered for films like Radha kalyanam, Velugu needalu, Bharyabhartalu, Bhogimanta, Mutyala Muggu, 'Sakshi, Mr. Pellam', Pelli Pustakam. The duo directed Mana Voori Pandavulu (1978) which won the Filmfare Award for Best Film - Telugu.

He worked with Satyam Sankaramanchi and drew 101 pictures for each of the stories in Amaravati Kathalu. Bapu is one-half of the Bapu-Ramana (Mullapudi Venkata Ramana) pair that made movies in Telugu cinema. Ramana provided an able foil, providing script and dialogue to suit Bapu's visuals. Bapu collaborated with Ramana to give life to Ramana's child prodigy character Budugu in the form of appealing caricatures.
Known for introducing Anil Kapoor to Indian cinema, Bapu has directed Hindi films such as Hum Paanch, Prem Pratigyaa,Seeta Swayamvar, Anokhi Bhakt, Bezubaan, Woh Saat Din, Pyari Behna, Mohobbat, Mera Dharam, and Diljala. He has also directed a Tamil film Neeti Devan Mayagugiran.

Bapu had suffered heart attacks many times throughout his career. He was admitted into a hospital at Chennai in mid August 2014. He suffered from a cardiac arrest on 31 August 2014, and died later on the same day.He was given a state funeral by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Nagesh (born Nageswaran C. Krishna Gundu Rao) was a Tamil film actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian during the 1960s. He is regarded as one of the most prolific comedians in Tamil cinema.

Nagesh was born in a Kannada family from Dharapuram, Erode. He was educated in Madras and worked as a clerk in the Indian Railways before entering Tamil film industry. He acted in over 1,000 Indian films from 1958 to 2008, performing in variety of roles as comedian, lead roles, supporting actor and antagonist. He died on 31 January 2009.

In a stark contrast to the comic roles he performed, Nagesh's personal life was wrought with suffering. After losing his father at an early age, Nagesh had to endure a weak financial situation and family ostracism which plagued him throughout his life. The film Server Sundaram, a rags to riches story in which Nagesh plays the lead role, is believed to be roughly based on the real life story of the actor.

Despite being primarily a comedian, Nagesh was rated highly as a character actor by his peers. Nagesh's style of comedy was largely inspired by Hollywood actor Jerry Lewis. Similarities between Nagesh and Lewis earned Nagesh the sobriquet "Jerry Lewis of India".

Nagesh was born as Gundu Rao to Krishna Rao and Rukmaniamma on 27 September 1933. His parents belonged to the Kannada-speaking Madhwa Brahmin community. It is believed that he was born in Dharapuram in Former Integrated Erode district, now changed to new Tirupur district.  His father died at an early age and the burden of educating Nagesh fell upon his mother. In his childhood, Nagesh was afflicted by small pox which slightly disfigured him.

He left Dharapuram at an early age and moved to Madras city in search of a career. At Madras, he shared a one-bedroom room with two others. His room mates, writer Vaali and director Sridhar, later became established themselves as prominent personalities in the Tamil cine field. He found employment as a clerk in the Indian Railways and was thus able to pay his rent and cope up with expenses.

Early in his life, he saw a Tamil play Kamba Ramayanam enacted by his colleagues, and felt that he could do a good job. He persuaded the secretary of the Railways cultural association to give him the role of a man suffering from stomach pain. MGR, then chief guest, seeing this play, in his speech praised Nagesh for his performance. From then onwards, Nagesh played small roles in various drama troupes.

In 1958, producer Balaji spotted Nagesh and gave him his first break in a film called Manamulla Marudhaaram. The film did not do well at the box office. Moreover, Nagesh had only a small role to play in the movie. In 1960, Nagesh made his debut in Kannada with Makkala Rajya.

Nagesh won critical acclaim for his performance in the 1961 movie Thayilla Pillai. But it was his 1962 hit Nenjil Oru Aalayam which launched his career in the Tamil film industry. Nagesh was seen playing the lead role in Server Sundaram(1964) directed by Krishnan Panju. The movie was a remarkable hit and proved to be a great turning point in his career. The song from this film Avalukenna.. Azhagiya Mugam.... still famous with youth.

Server Sundaram marked Nagesh's rise to prominence. The film was about a restaurant waiter "server" Sundaram who struggles to make his ends meet. He is in love with Radha (K. R. Vijaya), the daughter of the owner of the hotel in which he is working. The film is about how with the aid of his rich friend Raghavan (R. Muthuraman), "server" Sundaram gets a chance to act in movies and eventually, emerges as a rich and prominent actor. However, he is heartbroken when he learns that Radha is actually in love with Raghavan. While Nagesh drives viewers into laughter with his comical antics in the early scenes, his sensitive portrayal of a failed lover in the second half of the movie too earned widespread appreciation. The rags-to-riches story in the movie was actually based on Nagesh's own life. With Server Sundaram, Nagesh earned critical acclaim for versatility.

The success of Server Sundaram ensured that Nagesh was one of the most sought-after actors in the 1960s. At the height of his career, he acted in as much as 35 movies in a single calendar year, at one time, shooting for six movies simultaneously. He appeared in a cameo in the 1965 mythological Thiruvilayadal in which he portrayed the poor, simpleton temple priest Dharumi. The soliloquy which Dharmi indulges in, within the temple precincts, is regarded as one of the unforgettable scenes of Tamil cinema. He followed the success with supporting roles in films as Kaadhalikka Neramillai where he wants to direct a film under his own production house named OHO PRODUCTIONS(but till climax he didn't make film), Anbe Vaa, Shanthi Nilayam, Pattanathil Bhootham and Vietnam Veedu. He played the role of Mohan in Major Chandrakant which was a popular hit and won for its lead actor Sundararajan, the nickname "Major" Sundararajan. His portrayal of the detestable pimp Vaidhy in Thillana Mohanambal was noted for the way in which Nagesh blended humour with villany. In most of his films as comedian, Nagesh paired with the actress Manorama. In 1967, Nagesh acted in his first Hindi movie Farz And Apart from performing in supporting roles, Nagesh also acted as the main protagonist in a number of movies. Server Sundaram is one of them. Another performance which is well-remembered is his role as the poor struggling orphan Maadhu in Ethir Neechal. His sensitive and sympathetic portrayal of Maadhu evoked comparisons with top character actors of the day. Jayakanthan chose Nagesh to play the lead in the 1966 film Yaarukkaha Azhudhan overlooking Sivaji Ganesan.

In the 1970 movie Navakiragam K Balachandar wanted to have Nagesh along with Manorama as his sidekick but Nagesh refused for the reason that he preferred to act without Manorama. Manorama was offended by this decision and refused to act with Nagesh ever since. And In the movie "theepam" in the late 70's, there was a scene where they both were together, but there was no dialogue exchange between the two.

After ruining a great chance of Manorama's to be in K. Balachandar's movie, Navagragam in 1970, and later some unintelligent annotations about MGR's womanizing lifestyle Nagesh became a charity case from 1972. Nagesh's financial problems evolved and his acting chances declined as producers feared to offer him parts in their movies he turned to drinking. So MGR offered him some comedy parts in his movies with the condition that he would have no contact with him: Ulaikum Karangal, Meenava Nanban and Urimai Kural. But after MGR became Chief Minister the producers again circumvented Nagesh circumspectly, of course. But in 1977 after a convincement of MGR to Manorama [rumors have it] she agreed to have Nagesh in her movie with the same condition MGR once made: Deepam; but the producers took advantage of the situation and the director tried to put both in one scene but Manorama dodged Nagesh for entirety: you can sense the tension when once loved couple never looked at each other for the whole scene even after eight years in the same profession.

Nagesh acted in Tamil films till a few months before his death in 2009. Notable among some of his later movies were Panchathanthiram, Vasool Raja MBBS, Imsai Arasan 23m Pulikesi, and his last appearance, Dasavathaaram. However, an animated version of him will be seen in the upcoming performance capture film Kochadaiyaan.

C Sridhar (22 July 1933 – 20 October 2008) was a South Indian screenwriter and film director. Sridhar hailed from Chitthamur, a village near Madurantakam, Tamil Nadu. He studied at St. Joseph's Higher Secondary School (Chengalpattu), where he began writing and staging plays while he was in Grade 7. He entered films as a dialogue writer when his play Ratha Pasam was adapted as a film. He made his debut as a director with Kalyanaparisu. He started his own production company Chitralaya in 1961 and made a series of commercially successful films like Nenjil Ore Alayam and Then Nilavu. The latter which has Gemini Ganesan and Vyjayanthimala in the lead was the first Tamil film to be shot in Jammu and Kashmir.In all his films he used a combination of stars, melodrama and melodious songs. He has directed films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada.
Kaadhalikka Neramillai was one of the greatest blockbusters of Tamil film history made by Sridhar. It was later remade in Hindi with actor Kishore Kumar and Shashi Kapoor. Sridhar helped launch the career of some of the celebrities in Tamil cinema namely R. Muthuraman and Devika in Nenjil Oru Aalayam, Sreekanth, J. Jayalalithaa, Nirmala and Venniradai Moorthy in Vennira Adai , Ravichandran, Kanchana and Rajshri in Kaadhalikka Neramillai, Jayashree in Thendralae Ennai Thodu and Vikram in Thanthu Vitten Ennai.
His notable Bollywood film include Nazrana (1961), Dil Ek Mandir (1963), Pyar Kiye Jaa (1966) and Gehri Chaal (1973). Nazrana, starring by Raj Kapoor, Vyjayanthimala, Usha Kiran and Gemini Ganesan in guest appearance, earned him Filmfare Award for Best Story.His notable hit and good movies with sivajiganesan are Ootyvarai uravu, Nenjiirukkum varai, Sivantha Mann. Sivanthaman (1969) was the first color movie in tamil shooted at foreign locations. Dharti hindi version was realsed in 1970 both the movies were super hit. Distributors really enjoyed good box office collections. Hindi version Dharti was sold for all areas on the first day of pooja itself without estimating the expenses. Thats why the producer was disappointed but this fact was suppressed and people talked in a different way.
In 1997 when Sridhar was in poor health, Rajinikanth offered financial help to tide him over, but Sridhar refused the charity. He gave the same reply to director P. Vasu, who was his disciple. Sridhar, whose career spanned four decades, is credited with understanding the pulse of the public and creating movies in tune with the times. He wrote in a variety of styles, from the comical (Kadhalika Neramillai) to the serious (Nenjam Oru Aalayam). The latter was remade in Hindi with Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari as Dil Ek Mandir which earn him two nomination at Filmfare Awards, Best Director and Best Story nomination.He brought out the best in comedians T. R. Ramachandran, K. A. Thangavelu, and Nagesh, and helped introduce Murthy to a wider audience in Vennira Adai. Murthy, now a TV and movie comedian par excellence, is still sometimes referred to as "Venniradai Moorthy" after the fame he received from his performance in the movie.