Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao Biography 
Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao was a legendary playback singer of Telugu cinema. He has also sung in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu and Hindi languages. For his contributions to Indian music, he received Padmashree award, India's fourth highest civilian award. For 25 years or so, he was the distinguished voice of Telugu films and has also composed for more than 100 movies in different languages. He composed and sang the Bhagavad Gita just before his death in 1974, which is still popular. On 11 February 2003, a stamp was released by the Govt. of India in honour of Ghantasala. His voice is regarded as "the most majestic voice" and has played a significant role in developing Telugu film music. "Ghantasala melody king award" is named after him.
Ghantasala was born to Soorayya in a Telugu Brahmin family in 1922 in Krishna District. He used to dance to his father's Tarangams. He lost his father at a younger age and was brought up by his maternal uncle Ryali Pitchi Ramaiah. He learnt music from Patrayani Sitarama Sastry and later became Sangeet Vidwan from Maharajah's Government College of Music and Dance in Vijayanagram facing a lot of hardships. Ghantasala participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. He was arrested and he spent 18 months in jail. Once released, he met Senior Samudrala who advised him to join films. He got married to Savitri of Pedapulivarru during this time.
Ghantasala got his first break as a singer from All India Radio and later he recorded a few albums for HMV. He debut as a chorus singer for movies. His first movie as a music director was Laxmamma. He introduced the techniques of changing the voice pitch and diction to suit the actor, which was used for the first time in Telugu cinema. Through the melodious tunes he created over the years, he became one of the leading musicians in the golden era of Telugu cinema.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 17, 2014
