Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao(1922-1974)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
The legend in telugu music, Ghantasala was born in 1922. His father
Surayya was also a famous singer. During his childhood, Ghantasala used
to dance to his father's Tarangams. After his father's death, his
maternal Uncle Ryali Pitchi Ramaiah brought up Ghantasala. As he wished
to learn classical music, he went to the only Music College in
Vijayanagaram, without telling his family. He went through a number of
hardships to learn music and went on to become a "Sangeeta Vidhwan".
Ghantasala participated in the 'Quit India Movement' of 1942, for which
he was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After coming out of jail,
he met "Senior Samudrala", who advised him to try his luck in the film
industry as a singer. All India Radio gave him his first break as a
singer when HMV rejected him. Later on, Peketi Siva Ram from HMV
recorded his private songs. He joined Pratibha films and sang for
chorus and acted as an 'extra' in A.N.R's film 'Seetha Rama Jananam'.
Later Ghantasala worked with famous music directors like Gali Penchala,
C.R. Subbaraman. His first movie as a music director was "Laxmamma". He
composed the music for NTR's first film "Mana Desam". He became a
famous playback singer with super hit songs for films like " Keelu
Gurram" and "Laila Majnu". He sang more than 10,000 songs in Telugu,
Tamil, Kannada, and Malyalam and worked as a music director for over
100 films. He gave his voice for all the popular heroes of Telugu film
industry. His private songs were equally popular and his devotional
songs are popular even today. He has given performances in America,
England, Germany etc and had the distinction of performing in the
United Nations Organisation. Andhra pradesh Government felicitated him
on the occasion of 25 years of his film career. His last gift to the
people was his rendition of the Bhagavad Geeta, which is the most
popular version even till today. His illustrious career came to an end
on 11 February 1974.