Friday, September 10, 2010

Prolific producer Ramanaidu gets Phalke award

Pushing 74, Daggubati Ramanaidu was shooting a film in Araku off Visakhapatnam on Thursday when the veteran producer learned about his being conferred with the country’s biggest honour in the field of cinema: the Dadasaheb Phalke award.

A joyous Ramanaidu termed it an honour for Andhra Pradesh.“This is the most satisfying moment of my life,” gushed Naidu, the country’s most prolific film producer, who has entered the Guinness Book of World records for producing not only the maximum number of films (130), but also for doing it in the maximum number of languages. “I’m thankful to the people of my state and my film-industry colleagues,” he said.

The 2009 award, to be presented next month during the International Film Festival of India at Goa, comprises a ‘Swarn Kamal’, a purse of Rs 10 lakh and a shawl.

Ramanaidu was born into an agriculture family in Prakasam district’s Karamchedu, where he did his schooling before graduating from Presidency College in Chennai — a city to which he moved to in 1962 on the advice of actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. There, his visits to the Andhra Club in Chennai helped him strike a rapport with celebrities like Ramana Reddy and Relangi. Soon he attempted film production.

The debut was a success. Ramudu Bheemulu, with legendary NTR in the lead, was a blockbuster.

But it was Nageswara Rao-starrer 'Premnagar' (1971) that established Ramanaidu in the industry. “If 'Ramudu Bheemudu' was the seed (for my success), 'Premnagar' was the tree,” he famously said. In 1986, he migrated to Hyderabad, where he built the eight-acre Rama Naidu Studio. An ex-MP from Bapatala, Ramanaidu has won numerous awards, including the AP state award committee’s special award, Indian Panorama and LV Prasad Gold Medal. His 'Asukh' (Bengali) won the National Award for the Best Film in 1999.But he is not one who rests on his laurels. “I have produced films in almost all major Indian languages, except Punjabi. I plan to do that soon,” he said.

Source http://expressbuzz.com/entertainment/news/prolific-producer-ramanaidu-gets-phalke-award/205596.html

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