Veteran director Veeramaachaneni Madhusudhan Rao is no more. He was 89. Madhusudhan Rao was suffering from illness for the past a decade and passed away on Wednesday evening at 6.30 PM in his residence in Hyderabad. He is survived by two daughters. His wife Sarojini Devi died in 1999.
Madhusudhan Rao, who directed above 72 films belongs to Krishna district. He was born in a village called Eedupugallu to a farmer. He is one director who worked with seniors stars like Nagayya and Kannamba and also introduced stars of this generation like Nagarjuna through ‘Vikram’ and Jagapathy Babu through ‘Simhaswapnam’. He directed many message oriented films by believing and following his principles. He tasted success with not just one genre films but various genres like historical, social, devotional, love, crime, etc. Some of the popular films that quickly remind him are ‘Rakta Sambhandam’, ‘Gudi Gantalu’, ‘Veerabhimanyu’, ‘Manushulu Marali’, Krishnaveni, etc.
Madhusudhan Rao wielded his first megaphone ‘Sathi Tulasi’ in 1959 under the production of actor Chadalavada Kutumba Rao. His next film was ‘Annapoorna’ starring Jagayya and Jamuna under Jagapathi Films banner. His first film with NTR was ‘Taxi Ramudu’. ‘Padandi Munduku’ film on the backdrop of Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraham which was produced by Jaggaya brought him an enormous image. This movie was also screened in Moscow International Film Festival and earned critics accolades. Today’s many top most directors like K Raghavendra Rao, Kodanda Ramireddy, Vamsi, P C Reddy, Boyina Subbarao, Siva Nageswara Rao, etc., were all his students in the past.
Telugu Desam President N Chandra Babu Naidu was sorry to learn about the death of the veteran director and expressed his grief and condolences. In his message he mentioned, Congress leader Chiranjeevi also conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members. He said, “Madhusudhan Rao is like a library to all the directors in Telugu film industry. I worked with him in a film titled ‘Chandi Priya’.”
Ragalahari expresses its condolences to the family members of Veeramachaneni Madhusudhan Rao.
