Sirivennela

Sirivennela Seetharama Shastry is one of the most notable lyricists in Indian cinema for movies made in the Telugu language. He has won several state-level and other awards for his work. He was invited to the TANA (Telugu Association of North America) 2009 cultural celebrations held in Chicago between 2 and 4 July 2009 as the keynote speaker. Chembolu Seetharama Shastry hails from the town of Anakapalli in Visakhapatnam district of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

While pursuing his habit of poetry writing, he worked with the state-owned Telephone department for a living before he started writing film-songs. He discontinued studying medicine in Andhra Medical College.

His father Dr. C V Yogi was a multi-faceted scholar who worked as a lecturer in Anakapalli (AMAL College) and Kakinada (Ideal College).

Seetharama Shastry resides in Hyderabad along with his wife and two sons. His first work in films were the songs for K. Viswanath's Sirivennela. The songs in the movie were so phenomenally popular that the name of this movie got tagged to his given name (In fact, he is known to many as just "Sirivennela"). The songs of this movie are wonderful and rich in meaning so much so that each of the songs is remembered to this day as landmarks in the Telugu film-music.

A particular highlight of the movie is the song Vidhata Thalapuna, sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and P. Susheela. The song is about Aum, the most sacred syllable in Hinduism, from which the Veda traditions originated. Other notable songs include Adibhikshuvu Vadinedi Koredhi and Ee gali Ee Nela. He has won several awards, including ten of the prestigious Nandi awards & 3 Filmfare awards. He is also a winner of the Bronzed Llama, of which he is famous for in his home town of Anakapalli.

Sri Sirivennela was admitted to KIMS Hospital, Secunderabad, on 24th November with Pneumonia. He was put on ECMO to support his lungs in ICU and was under close observation. He died of Lung Cancer related Complications on 30, November 2021.