Mannava Balayya

Mannava Balayya Biography

Mannava Balayya is a popular actor of Telugu cinema, best known for character roles. He has appeared in 300 films in a career spanning to 60 decades since late 1950s. This veteran has also produced, scripted and directed Telugu films. He has scripted a few plays as well; best of them is Nalupu Telupu which was adapted to big screen as Nandi awardee Chelleli Kapuram. He was honoured with Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for the year 2012. He is quite popular with pivot character roles of mythological films in the 1960s and later.

Mannava Balayya or simply M. Balayya was born in the year 1930 in Chavapadu, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh (British India). Mannava Guravaiah Chowdary and Annapurnamma were his parents. He was an engineering graduate who got into films, and was involved with plays since college days. Tapi Chanakya, noted film director later became his mentor in Telugu film industry. He introduced young Balayya to silver screen through 1958 film, Ettuku Pai Ettu. Since then he has been a part of several social dramas and mythological films made in the 1960s and 1970s.

He played the lead role of Lord Siva in second release, Parvathi Kalyanam released the same year. He played the parallel lead in award winning film, Chivaraku Migiledi. Kumkuma Rekha, Krishna Prema, Pandava Vanavasam, Babruvahana, Bobbili Yudham, Palnati Yudham, Shri Krishna Pandaviyam etc are some of his noted releases of 1960s. He has frequently worked with NTR, Akkineni Nageshwara Rao, Govindarajula Subba Rao etc during the classic era of Telugu cinema. In the 1980s he moved to elderly roles and still doing the same. He has produced a few movies in the 1970s and 1980s.  

Published: June 05, 2019

Updated: June 05, 2019