Mullapudi Venkata Ramana passes away

Popular writer Mullapudi Venkata Ramana has passed away in the early hours this morning (February 24) in Chennai. He breathed his last at the age of 80.

Mullapudi Venkata Ramana was born on June 28, 1931 in Dowlaiswaram near Rajahmundry. He was quite famous for his cartoon creation Budugu. His father died when he was just nine years old. The entire family was shifted to Madras for better living and it was his mother, who took pains to sustain the family.

After completing the SSLC in Madras, Ramana did several small time jobs and finally almost settled in 1953, as a reporter in Andhra Patrika newspaper. His good literary skills landed him from daily to weekly and was asked to look after cinema section. From then on, he was no looking back. He befriended with Bapu, popular Director, artiste and cartoonist right from his childhood and both of them studied together, since Class V and continued their studies in Kesari High Schol.

Their friendship is indivisible till date and lasted for more than 60 years. Their combination started when Ramana"s first short story Amma Maata Vinakapothe in Bala, a kids" magazine published by Radio Annayya (Nyayapati Raghava Rao) in 1945 and Bapu illustrated it.

Later, Mullapudi and Bapu together entered the film industry, with Bapu wielding megaphone and Ramana penning the story, screenplay and dialogues. Bapu started directing in 1967 in association with Ramana and the movies under his direction are remembered for classical and lyrical charm. They worked together in 49 films. Mullapudi's dialogues became popular in Mutyala Muggu. It became so popular that it was released on audio cassesttes. Mullapudi was awarded the Raja-Lakshmi Literary Award for the year 1995 from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai.

Known for his comic yet emotional style of writing, he scored many hits in a career spanning over three decades. Ramana, together with his close friend, famous movie director Bapu, produced several movies that won critical acclaim and went on to become box office hits.

Vamsa Vriksham (1980), one of the early regional films done by Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, was made by the Bapu-Ramana duo. Andala Ramudu, Sakshi, Sampoorna Ramayanam, Bhakta Kannappa, Srinadha Kavi Sarva Bhowma, Pelli Pustakam and Mr Pellam were some of the Telugu films, which brought him fame. He also worked for a few Hindi films like Hum Paanch and Jeevan Jyoti.

Ramana worked with veteran Telugu actors like late N T Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, a Dadasaheb Phalke award recipient, Krishna, Sobhan Babu and also young actors such as Srikant.

We at Oneindia pray the departed soul of Mullapudi Venkata Ramana rest in peace.