[Reader-list] field trip to Hyderabad

Mon May 9 15:50:18 IST 2005

Hi, this is the fourth and delayed posting from the project (Oral)
Documenting the death of a genre: Mythologicals in Telugu Cinema.  I was in
Hyderabad, busy doing some oral history of Telugu mythologicals for the
past 15 days.  And also met few people who are reading my postings on the
readers-list, which is very exciting.

I thought I will share my fieldwork experience, as part of which I located
a lot of material which will be useful to all those people, who are working
on Telugu language and literature, Andhra Pradesh State formation, Freedom
struggle in Madras presidency, Telengana movement and of course early
Telugu cinema.

It is very important to visit Andhra Pradesh State Archives where one can
find a lot of material Nizams rule (most of the documents I believe are in
Urdu).  For instance, one of my friends, who was helping me out, found a
document of 1880s which was in a dump of un-archived material.  The
organization is extremely lethargic.  You will not be given access to use
the archive material the moment you give the Sarai authorization letter or
any other academic organization letter.  After they receive your
application letter they will take atleast 3 months to inform you, through
post, that you can come and use the archive facilities for six months. 
Luckily I could find some alternate way and skimmed through some material. 
One very useful resource is that they have all editions of Andhra Patrika
(from 1914-1966) and it is also available on micro-film.  Andhra Patrika
and Krishna Patrika are very prominent magazines, which dealt with various
issues pertaining to Telugu, Madras presidency and Andhra Pradesh.

All of Krishna Patrika is available in Potti Sriramulu Telugu University
and it is easier to deal with Telugu university officials than the AP State
Archives people.  Further, Telugu University library has old magazines on
Telugu theatre, literature, dance and cinema.  And it is a bit difficult to
Xerox things here.

But the oral documentation, which I proposed to undertake, was successful. 
I could interview A. Nageshwara Rao, who is 81 years old and still looking
forward to act in films.  He entered Telugu cinema industry in 1940s with a
folklore film and acted in mythologicals, historicals but later became
popular for his social films.  Another interesting fact about ANR is that
he was called Novel hero as he acted in many film adaptations of Telugu
novels like Prem Nagar, Scretary, Devadas.  And many of the Telugus would
staunchly argue that his Devadas is the best film adaptation of the novel
than any other film.  He has also built Annapurna Film Studios which is a
big banner even today.  He is a contemporary of N.T. Rama Rao and was as
popular as him.  Also he is the Dadasaheb Phalke awardee.  

Gummadi Venkateshwara Rao is the other person whom I have interviewed.  He
is a character artist and has acted in many mythologicals, folklore,
historical and social films (more than 400 films).  He is a year younger to
ANR and entered into the film industry in 1950. The other versatile actor
is Kaikala Satyanarayana who has acted in more than 800 films and is still
acting.  

Also I have interviewed Kantha Rao, who is older than ANR and NTR and is
known for his folklore films.  He has also produced few Telugu films. 
Kantha Rao and Vittalacharya are considered to be the best combination for
folklore films.  Further, Kantha Rao was at one point more popular than NTR
and ANR but could not hold to that position for long time.  Some people say
that he was suppressed in the industry as he comes from Telengana region
and is not a Kamma or Kapu.  I tried to question him on this issue also but
he was reluctant to speak.

Further, I have also interviewed D.V. Narasa Raju, 81 not out (as he puts
it).  He was a scriptwriter and was a columnist in Eenadu Newspaper for a
long time.  Further, given his training in Political Science, he has very
strong arguments against Gandhijis approach to politics and Indian
National Movement.  Moreover, he has read works on Hollywood cinema and
watched many films.  And Cicely be Demelli is his favourite.  S.V. Rama Rao
is the other interviewee, who is a film critic and has written a book on
Telugu cinema history titled Telugu Tera.

The following is the questionnaire based on which the interviews were
conducted.

Personal Details

Name		:
Age		:
Sex		:
Address	:
Occupation	:

General Information
1) How do you relate yourself to Telugu Cinema? (eg: film
personality/spectator/critic)
2) What are the other language films that you have
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
3) Which language films have you
watched most:		made most:		acted most:		been part of most: 
3a) If there is/are any particular reason(s) other than it being your
mother tongue, please mention it?
4) Do(did) you read film magazines?  If so, please list them.
Name(s)			Language		(aprox.)Year
5) Do you write about films, film industry, etc.?  If yes, please give the
details.
6) Were you ever part of a film(s)? If so, in what capacity(ies)?
7) Mention the film related organization(s), if you are/were part of any.

Film and Other Art Forms
1) List the stage plays that you have
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
2) Details of the Novels or Short stories that you have
read:		published:		written:		been part of: 
3) Do you involve yourself in other fine-arts?  If yes, give the details?
4) According to you what are or were the similarities/differences between
(explain in detail) 
i) film and theatre in terms of production, circulation, exhibition, impact
on the receiver, form, etc:
ii) film and novel in terms of production, circulation, exhibition, impact
on the receiver,  form, etc:
iii) film and painting in terms of production, circulation, exhibition,
impact on the receiver, form, etc:
5) Has the relationship (if there is any) between Film and other art forms
changed over the period of time?  Please give your answers under the
following points
when is the change:
what is the change:
why is the change:
how is the change:

Classification of films
1) Approximately how many mythological films (pouranicalu) have you
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
2) Aprox. how many folklore films (Jaanapada chitralu) have you
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
3) Aprox. how many historical films (charitrakalu) have you
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
4) Aprox. how many social films (sanghikalu) have you
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
5) Aprox. how many devotional films (bhakti chitralu) have you
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
6) Mention any other type of Telugu films that you have
watched:	made:			acted:		been part of: 
7) On what basis do you say a particular film is a mythological/social
etc.?  That is to say, what elements do you think should be taken into
consideration to classify a film?
On Mythologicals (Pouranicalu)
1) What are the characteristics of a mythological film?
2) Could you give a detailed account of Mythologicals in Telugu cinema?
in terms of its form:
in terms of its content:
in terms of its role in the film industry:
in terms of its relationship with technology:
in terms of its relationship with other art forms:
in terms of its coexistence with other film forms like devotionals,
socials, etc.:
in terms of its effects on  viewers:
in terms of its reception:
in terms of its political and cultural impact:
other than the above:
3) When and why do you think mythologicals died in Telugu cinema?  Mention
the reasons in detail.
4) There are also mythologicals in other Indian cinemas.  Do you see any
difference between the Telugu mythologicals and other language mythological?
4a) If yes, please give a detailed account of the same.
5) It is popularly believed that N.T. Rama Rao could become a successful
politician mostly because of his mythic characters in films.  How far do
you agree or disagree with this opinion?   Substantiate your case with
examples.
6) Anything additional would like to say about mythologicals in Telugu
cinema?

Star System and Politics

In this section I tried to do a comparative analysis of N T Rama Rao (who
became the first non-congress Chief Minister in Andhhra Pradesh) and A.
Nageshwara Rao.  

N.T. Rama Rao: In his 44 years of film career, Rama Rao had acted in about
297 films, out of which 280 are Telugu, 15 Tamil and 4 Hindi films.  44 of
his films were mythologicals, 13 were historicals, 55 fictional films and
185 were social films.  140 of his films celebrated hundred days and 33
films celebrated silver jubilees, while six of his films ran more than 50
weeks.  During 1950s NTR was the most cherished hero who was acting in 10
films per year.

1) There seems to be a great difference between the image of a film star
before 1960s and after (for instance Nagaiah vs. N.T.R).  Would you agree
with this fact?
1a) If yes, talk about the differences in detail.
1b) Further, what do you think facilitated this change in the star image?
2) Female stars of 1930s, 40s, 50s were given more importance and were
prominent in a film like todays male stars in the film industry.  What are
the reasons that brought this change?
3) Could you give an account of the star and industry relationship from
1930s to 80s, with specific reference to Telugu film industry and the
changes that occurred?
4) The connection between cinema and politics is popularly seen as, a star
carrying over his on-screen charisma into the electoral politics.  For
instance, stars like N.T. Rama Rao in Telugu, M.G. R. in Tamil and Raj
Kumar in Karnataka are most of the time the substance of the discussion on
cine-politics.  Why do you think that these stars had the charismatic
effect unlike others?
5) Do you see the cine-politics as only a South Indian film industry
phenomenon?  
5a) If so what do you think are the reasons for this phenomenon?
6) To talk about two specific stars N.T. Rama Rao and A. Nageshwara Rao: 
i) Do you think both commanded equal and same popularity in the Telugu
filmdom during their time?
ii) Keeping aside the fact that A. Nageshwara Rao did not venture into
electoral politics, do you think he could have been equally influential
like N. T. Rama Rao in politics?  Substantiate your stand in detail.

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