Chittor V. Nagaiah

Chittor V. Nagaiah Biography

Chittor V. Nagaiah was an actor, composer, director, producer, writer and playback singer of Telugu film industry, known by the name - ‘The Paul Muni of India’. Nagaiah has acted in about 200 Telugu films, and 160 films in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. He was honoured by Padma Shri in 1965, one of the earliest south Indian actors to receive this honour. He died on December 30, 1973 aged 69.

Nagaiah was born on 28 March 1904 in a Telugu speaking Brahmin family in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. His parents were Ramalinga Sarma and Venkata Lakshmamba. During his childhood the family moved to several places and finally settled at Tirupati in Chittoor district. He took up studies and became a graduate with a scholarship provided by the Tirupati Devasthanam. He worked as clerk and journalist before entering film industry. He has also participated in freedom struggle movement. He had strong association with ‘Rama Vilasa Sabha’ a cultural association in Chittoor and appeared in many of their plays like ‘Sarangadhara’, ‘Viswamithra Chitra Nilayam’, ‘Savitri’, ‘Bruhannala’ and ‘Ramadasu’. In most of these plays he took the character of saints. He bagged gold medal for his female role as ‘Chitrangi’, in the play ‘Sarangadhara’.

While he was active in stage plays, he got married to Vijaya Lakshmi. But she died when she was giving birth to a girl child a year after. He then married a girl, Girija. She died due to miscarriage in the eighth month. His daughter died of an undiagnosed illness. He stayed at Ramana Maharshi Ashram and joined the Chennapuri Andhra Maha Sabha, a cultural Association of Andhras. He debut big screen through Telugu film ‘Gruhalakshmi’ in 1938 in supporting role. It was followed by ‘Vande Matharam’ (1939), ‘Sumangali’ (1940), ‘Devata’ (1941), ‘Bhakta Potana’ (1942), ‘Swarga Seema’ (1945), ‘Thygayya’ (1946) and he became the highest paid actor of the industry. Later he became a producer and director as well making several award winning films.  

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Updated: January 29, 2014