Gollapudi Maruthi Rao

Biography:

Actor, writer, and director Gollapudi Maruti Rao (14 April 1939 – 12 December 2019) was well-known in Telugu theater, cinema, and literature. Rao played a range of parts in more than 250 Telugu movies.

Rendu Rellu Aaru, Patita, Karuninchani Devatalu, Mahanatudu, Kaalam Venakku Tirigindi, and Aasayaalaku Sankellu are only a few of his well-known dramas and literary works that have won multiple state awards.

In addition to serving on the International Film Festival of India’s Indian Panorama section jury in 1996, he was a member of the National Film Development Corporation’s Script Scrutiny Committee.

His notable screenplays included Samsaram Chadharangam, Tharangini, Doctor Chakravarthy, Kallu, and others. He received six Nandi Awards from the state of Andhra Pradesh. He founded the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation in 1997, which bestows the Gollapudi National Award on the best director’s debut picture in Indian cinema history.

Rao was well-known for his more than 20 years of journalism and All India Radio work. His piece was part of Osmania University’s Master of Arts program in Telugu literature. As part of the Aadaan Pradaan initiative, the National Book Trust translated this work into every Indian language.

In 1988, the piece was adapted for Telugu cinema, and in 1989, it was awarded the Nandi Award for Best Story. In addition to being adapted into a Telugu film, his 1975 play Kallu won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film.

The Song and Drama Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting bought his piece Oka Chettu – Rende Puvvulu for public performance.

Telugu Nataka Rangam, a collection of writings on theater, was required reading for students in the Department of Theatre Arts at Andhra University in Visakhapatnam (1967).

His two research pieces, “History of the development in ‘Thought’ and ‘Technique’ of Telugu play-writing” and “Amateur Theatre – its origin and growth in relation to the World Amateur Theatre movement,” were published in the eleventh edition of Andhra Vignana Sarvaswam (Telugu Encyclopedia).

His first Telugu play about the Sino-Indian War, Vandemaataram, was released by the Andhra Pradesh State Information & Public Relations Department in 1963.

Maruti Rao was born into a Telugu-speaking brahmin family on April 14, 1939, in Nandabalaga Village, Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh, India. In 1959, she earned her B.SC. in mathematical physics from Andhra University in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.