H. M. Reddy

H. M. Reddy Biography

H. M. Reddy was a famous filmmaker associated with Telugu cinema. His full name is Hanumappa Muniappa Reddy. Reddy is best remembered as the director of first south Indian talkie - Kalidas. The movie was shot in both Telugu and Tamil languages. It was followed by the historic - Bhakta Prahlada in 1932. The movie is credited to be the first full length Telugu talkie. Reddy produced and directed the film. He has worked as assistant director to Ardeshir Irani, who produced first Indian talkie - Alam Ara. The director who pioneered the Telugu cinema to next level, died on Jan 14th 1960. He was still active in films and was working on the film - ‘Gaja donga’.

He was born in Andhra Pradesh in 1892. He studied at Bangalore and worked as a police inspector for British government before his foray to films. He moved to Mumbai to study more about Telugu films. He worked as Reflector boy in a studio at Mumbai and observed the film making techniques. Reddy started off his career as an assistant under the legendary filmmaker - Ardeshir Irani who made the first Indian talkie - Alam Ara. It prompted Reddy to make a talkie in Telugu as well. Silent film - Vijay Kumar in 1930 marked his directorial debut.

Then he shot a film – Kalidasa in Tamil and Telugu with Srinivasa Rao and T.P. Rajyalakshmi in the lead roles, followed by the full-fledged film - Bhakta Prahlada in 1932. The film was produced by Irani. L.V. Prasad who played a cameo spoke in Hindi in the first talkie – Kalidasa. Bhaktha Prahlada was the first complete talkie film in any of the South Indian languages, released a few months before the full-length Tamil talkie, Harischandra. H.M Reddy later started Rohini pictures limited at Chennai and “Gruha Laxmi” was the first film in this banner.

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Updated: March 27, 2016