Kalyanam Raghuramaiah Biography 
Kalyanam Raghuramaiah, also known as Eelapata Raghuramaiah was a popular singer actor associated with Telugu cinema. Raghuramaiah, known for his histrionics and melodious voice carried both these roles with ease. Though his real name is Kalyanam Raghuramaiah, he is easy recognized as Eelapata Raghuramaiah. Widely admired for his histrionic skills, melodious voice, padyam renditions with fluid alapanas, and whistle-songs, he was also a stage actor. He began whistling songs using his finger placed on his tongue, which earned him the name Eelapata.
He was quite popular for his mythological characters such as Krishna, Dushyantha, Bhavanisankar, Narada etc, which he repeatedly portrayed on screen for more than 6 decades. He was the first Krishna of Telugu screen. Celebrities of south Indian cinema like MGR, Susheela, SPB etc are great fans of this artist. He also received admiration from national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarvepalli Radhakrishna, V. V. Giri etc.
Eelapata Raghuramaiah was born on 5 March 1901 in Suddapalli village, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. Kalyanam Narasimham and Venkata Subbamma were his parents. Since childhood he played the role of Raghurama for stage shows and later he came to be known by the same name. His real name was Venkata Subbaiah and he was rechristened as Raghuramaiah by Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao. His unique style of whistling songs earned him a lot of fans including many national leaders. Tagore called him "Nightingale of the Stage". An excellent stage actor, he did more than 20,000 stage performances during his life time.
"Prudhvi Putra" in 1933 marked his screen debut. It was only the 5th film made in Telugu language and very soon he established as a successful singing hero onscreen, mostly portraying mythological roles. Sri Krishna Rayabaram and Chintamani are noted for his roles as Lord Krishna. He is a recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1973 and Padma Sri in 1975. He died due to heart attack the same year.
Published: N/A
Updated: April 03, 2016
.jpeg "Lakshmi Menon (actress)")
