Ветури Сундарарама Мурти: Жизнь и творчество поэта и журналиста

Poet
the surname

Veturi Sundararama Murthy (29 January 1936 – 22 May 2010), known mononymously by his surname Veturi, was an Indian poet, lyricist and journalist who is popular for writing Telugu songs. His career in Telugu cinema spanned more than four decades.

Veturi was born to Chandrasekhar Sastry and Kamalamba in Pedakallepalli, near Challapalli, Krishna into a Telugu Brahmin family. Veturi was a nephew of the Telugu Research Scholar Veturi Prabhakara Sastri. His grandfather Veturi Sundara Sastry was also a poet.

Veturi completed his schooling in Diviseema, Jaggayyapeta, near Vijayawada in Krishna district, and SSLC in his grandmother's village. Later, Veturi went to Chennai for his intermediate studies and came back to Vijayawada where he completed his degree at S. R. R. Government College. He was a student of the legendary Viswanatha Satyanarayana at this college.

Veturi joined Andhra Prabha as a journalist in 1952, after his education. He learned the basics of editing a news article from his senior at Andhra Prabha, Narla Venkateswara Rao, whom he considers his first teacher. In 1959, he joined a weekly called Andhra Patrika, where Bapu and Mullapudi Venkata Ramana were his colleagues. He was the in charge of the Cinema section at Andhra Patrika. He also worked for the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee's official daily newspaper, called Andhra Janata, as an editor. In 1962, he became the first and only Telugu journalist to interview the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who came to inaugurate the Srisailam Hydroelectricity project. He covered the speeches of national leaders like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. In 1964, he worked as an assembly reporter. His articles are said to be very catchy and witty. For instance, he referred to the meeting of MLAs in Hotel Dwaraka, near the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly as "Adigo Dwaraka Ivigo Alamandalu" ("This is Dwaraka and here are the cattle") His writing style caught the attention of the film industry due to his use of traditional poetic rules related to alliteration and rhyme for describing current affairs.

Veturi had contacts with the Telugu film industry during his days as a journalist. He used to meet veteran lyric writer Dasarathi often. Legendary director V. Nagayya offered him a role in his film, Naa Illu (1953). However, two days before the shooting began, Veturi decided not to act as he felt that he was not fit for acting, and wrote a letter of apology to Nagayya for rejecting his offer. N. T. Rama Rao, has invited him to join the film industry as a lyricist. In 1974, he wrote his first song, "Bharatanaari Charitamu" , in the form of Harikatha, for O Seeta Katha (1974) under the direction of K. Viswanath.

In 1978, K Viswanath's Siri Siri Muvva proved his prowess in expressing diverse emotions with poetry. In 1977, actor Sr. N. T. R's Adavi Ramudu showcased Veturi's talent for penning inspirational and romantic lyrics. The album was an instant hit among various audiences. Acharya Aatreya, the leading lyricist in those days, was known to take days for writing a song. Veturi became the first choice for directors and producers too because of his ability to write a song to the director's taste in a few minutes. He went on to pen more than 5,000 songs in his career. He wrote more mass numbers for movies like Vetagadu and Driver Ramudu, and classics for movies like Sankarabharanam and Sagara Sangamam. In particular, Sankarabharanam stood as a landmark in the Telugu film industry.

After the surge of his popularity during the 1970s, he went on to work with a variety of directors and actors in the 1980s. He wrote classics for directors like Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Dasari Narayana Rao, Bapu, Jandhyala, Vamsy and mass numbers for directors like Raghavendra Rao, A. Kodandarami Reddy, Vijaya Bapineedu. He delivered a number of hits for senior actors like Sr. N. T. R, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Ghattamaneni Krishna, Shobhan Babu, Krishnam Raju and upcoming stars like Chiranjeevi, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Daggubati Venkatesh. This golden period in his career saw memorable albums like Saptapadi, Subhodayam, Subhalekha, Sagara Sangamam, Meghasandesam, Mudda Mandaram, Malle Pandiri, Nalugu Stambhalata, Rendu Jalla Seeta, Amarajeevi, Sreevariki Prema Lekha, Ananda Bhairavi, Srivari Sobhanam, Mogudu Pellalu, Chantabbai, Sitaara, Anveshana, Alapana, Mayuri, Amavasya Chandrudu, Janaki Ramudu and Geetaanjali.

During the late 1980s, Veturi's mass numbers garnered a lot of response from the public resulting in directors demanding more and more of them. However, Veturi still maintained his balance between classics and mass numbers with movies like Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari, Sarigamalu, Sitaramayya Gaari Manavaralu, Matru Devo Bhava, and Mechanic Alludu. Veturi was given the opportunity to dub many Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Some of his dubbed albums, for instance Iruvar and Devaraagam, received wide acclaim.

During this period, Veturi created classics like Gangotri and Swarabhishekam. His association with young directors like Sekhar Kammula and Gunasekhar produced some memorable albums, like Anand, Godavari, Varudu, Arjun, Premishte (Dubbed version of Kaadhal) and Leader.

Veturi received several national and regional awards for his contributions to literature and films. He has been conferred an honorary Doctorate in the 23rd convocation of Acharya Nagarjuna University. In 2007, he received the Jandhyala Memorial Award.

He got the National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song "Ralipoye Puvva" in the film Matrudevobhava, making him the second Telugu film lyricist to achieve the distinction after the revolutionary poet, Sri Sri. In 2006, he declared that he would return the National Award if Telugu is not given the status of Classical Language by the Government of India. In 2008, the Government of India declared Telugu as a classical language.

He received filmfare award for the song, Uppongele Godavari in the 2006 movie, Godavari. In 2008, he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.

He received two Manaswini awards. Song: Venuvai vachchaanu , Movie: Matrudevobhava, Year: 1993. Song: Aakaashaana suryudundadu , Movie: Sundarakanda, Year: 1992.

This book was originally a "musical play" telecasted on the All India Radio. The story describes the culture and people during the time of the king Krishna Deva Raya through the story of a Devadasi. The original play has music by the great music director Pendyala Nageswara Rao. One can see the beauty of the Telugu language in this book. Veturi was introduced to the director K. Viswanath through this book and later their combination was a big hit. N. T. Rama Rao was so impressed by the story of this book that he wanted to make it as a movie. It is believed that there were some discussions on the script but the movie was never produced.

Veturi was married to Seeta Maha Lakshmi and has three sons: Ravi Prakash, Chandrasekhar and Nanda Kishore.

In March 2010, Veturi openly criticized the Film Nagar Cooperative Society officials for not handing over the 1000 sq. yard land that was allotted to him about 28 years ago. He alleged that several juniors and ineligible people were given plots ahead of him. He was allegedly offered a double bedroom flat for 1.5 million. After his death, noted singer Mano and senior actor Vijay Chandar demanded the government to give the land to his family.

Veturi died of a pulmonary hemorrhage at a private hospital in Hyderabad on 22 May 2010, aged 74, at about 9:30 p. m. local time. He was admitted to the hospital two days earlier and was kept in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) there as his health was deteriorating. K. Viswanath, who introduced Veturi to the film industry, stated that "his works would please even the gods".

Appaji Ambarisha Darbha, a creative digital media professional turned actor made a font with the name "Veturi" which was inaugurated by Telugu lyricist Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry in 2018.