The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : A peep into the life of legendary Nagi Reddy

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Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A peep into the life of legendary Nagi Reddy

Staff Reporter

A documentary film on the producer is made by Ratna Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM: A vast majority of the cine buffs, who have crossed their forties, would have heard a lot about veteran film producer B. Nagi Reddy. But the present generation of filmgoers may not know much about him except that he was a great producer.

Ghantasala Ratna Kumar, son of legendary singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, has documented his life history for the benefit of posterity. Clippings from the documentary were screened at a meeting organised by the Vizag Film Society(VFS).

“This is a biography told in an autobiographical style,” said Mr. Ratna Kumar. It took him about 10 months to meet veteran film personalities and make them recall their association with Dr. Nagi Reddy. He took pains in collecting the quotes of the late producer and clips from the old films produced by him and putting them in sequential order.

More of a biography

Ratna Kumar, who has carved a niche for himself as a dubbing artiste by lending his voice in 1,076 films in five languages, is fond of making documentaries. “A documentary film is documentation of events and I do not believe in unnecessary dramatization,” he says.

Dr. Nagi Reddy’s sons were impressed with Ratna Kumar’s documentary film on the life of his father Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao and asked him to produce a documentary on their own father. “When sketching the life of my father, I had interviewed around 300 personalities from different walks of life. It was more of a biography,” he said. Mr. Ratna Kumar described the period between 1950 and 1970 as the golden era in films not only in India but also in other parts of the world.

VFS joint secretary P.V. Ramana, VFS president K. Ravi and secretary Narava Prakasa Rao spoke.

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