Vedantam Raghavaiah

Vedantam Raghavaiah Biography

Vedantam Raghavaiah was a veteran film maker, screenwriter, actor and choreographer associated with Telugu cinema. He has produced and directed several Telugu movies. As a film maker he is best known for the movie Devdas – released in 1953. Its music was composed by C.R. Subburaman, where the role of Devdas was portrayed by Akkineni Nageshwara Rao. This single movie made Rao an overnight star. He was married to actress Suryaprabha and his sister Pushpavalli was also a noted actress, best known as Gemini Ganeshan’s love interest. Thus Bollywood Diva Rekha born in this relationship is his niece. Raghavaiah’s daughter Subha is also a noted actress of south Indian cinema, mostly during 1980s.

Vedantam Raghavaiah was born in 1919 in the village of Kuchipudi. Raghavaiah, a choreographer of Telugu cinema was an accomplished Kuchipudi dancer too. He started his film career with Mohini Rugmangada (1937) as an actor. Then throughout years he worked as a choreographer for several Telugu movies, apart from doing dance sequences. Raitu Bidda, Vipranarayana, Swargaseema and Vande Mataram were his noted works as a choreographer. He worked as choreographer for movies before his debut as a film director. He has also choreographed a few Hindi movies.

Strisahasam was his first movie as a film producer and director. As a producer/director, Raghavaiah shot to fame with the movie – Devdas, shot in Tamil and Telugu languages. Prema Pasam and Iru Sahodarigal are his Tamil movies. He scripted, produced and directed Suvarna Sundari – one of the most popular Telugu movies in the late 1950s which was later remade to Hindi with the same name. It was a folklore story of a Gandharva princess falling in love with a human prince. The movie included all memorable tracks sung by Bollywood’s greatest singers – Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey and Sudha Malhotra in its Hindi version.

Vedantam Raghavaiah was a powerful man who used to wear a tiger's claw around his neck. He died of food poisoning or some diabetic ailment. He was active in the industry till his death. Bhale Ethu Chivaraku Chittu released in 1970 was his last movie as a director.

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Updated: December 30, 2015