Raja Babu

Raja Babu Biography

Raja Babu was a noted comedian of Telugu cinema who was active since late 1960’s to early 1980’s. He was one of the most successful comedians of Telugu cinema during 1970’s and his pairing with Rama Prabha was quite popular in those days. He has Nandi awards in his credits as a successful comedian. He was born in Rajahmundry and to honour him, a 9 ft bronze statue was unveiled in his birthplace. Though known for comedian’s role, he has also played lead role in a few Telugu movies like Manishi Rodduna Paddadu, Tata Manavadu, Thirupathi, Evariki Vare Yamuna Teere and Pichodi Pelli. Apart from Rama Prabha, he was most successfully paired with Leela Rani, Prasanna Rani and Gitanjali. Raja Babu was so popular that at one time he would shuttle between sets. His brothers, Chitti Babu and Ananth Punyamurthula are noted film and television personalities.  

He was born in Rajamundry, East Godavari District on October 20, 1937. His real name was Punyamurthula Appalaraju and was also known as Appala Raju in short. Aftre matriculation he did a Teacher training course and worked as a school teacher for a short period before he reached entertainment industry. He taught Telugu in those days. In parallel he worked as a stage actor too. While doing one such performance, he was spotted by Garikapati Raja Rao who invited him to Madras for his next film. He initially gave some tuition to earn a living.

Samajam in 1960 marked his film debut. In a career spanning to two decades, he completed around 600 movies. He was so busy in those days, that he made 1 hour shift to different studios. As he was very popular, directors used to add extra scenes of Raja to pull crowd. Babu married Lakshmi Ammalu in 1965 and had two children. He also did charity acts during his life time. He died at a young age of 45.

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Updated: April 11, 2014