The prestigious Raghupathy Venkaiah award this year has gone to
M Balaiah aka Mannava Balaiah. The Andhra Pradesh Government will honor this 82 year old actor with this prestigious award as the recognition of his services to the Telugu film industry. Balayya will receive this award in the Nandi awards function which will be held soon. Along with this award, the actor will receive Rs 50,000/- cash, gold Nandi, gold medal and the certificate.
Born in Chavapadu village in Amaravathy mandalam from Guntur district, Balayya was born to Guravayya and Annapurnamma and pursued mechanical engineering from Guindy Engineering College of Chennai. He made his debut as an actor with Thapi Chanakya’s social film ‘Ethuku Pai Ethu’ under Sarathi Studios. Films such as ‘Parvati Kalyanam’, ‘Bhagyadevata’ and ‘Kumkuma Rekha’ earned him good recognition as an actor. ‘Bhookailas’ was the landmark film in his career. While Balaiah played the role of Lord Shiva, NTR performed Ravana character. He acted in more than 300 films and established Amrutha Films banner in 1970. He penned a play titled ‘Nalupu Telupu’, later made into film ‘Chelleli Kapuram’ and also received Gold Nandi award from Andhra Pradesh Government. Films like ‘Neramu Siksha’ and ‘Annadammula Katha’ were also penned by him.
On the other hand as mentioned before, Urvashi Sharada will receive the NTR National Award, the Nagireddy-Chakrapani award will be received by AVM Saravanan Balasubrahmaniam and the special jury award will go to producer Edidha Nageswara Rao. ‘Maa Bhoomi’ director B Narasingh Rao will receive the B N Reddy award.
