Potpourri of tidbits about Tamil cinema - Vittalacharya
Vittalacharya was a popular name in the cine field in the 70s. During this period, he took the cinema world by storm with his movies marked by fantasy and the supernatural that his name became a synonym for fantasy! He dwelled on special effects creating supernatural fantasies that lured film-goers right from the five-year old to the octogenarians. He was born to the couple Padmanabha Acharya – Seethammaa on 28-1-1920 at Belle near Udupi in Karnataka State. He has four younger sisters and one younger brother. Though born into an orthodox Brahmin family, he was closer to those in the field of fine arts including theatre artistes, folk and ‘kathakali’ dancers. His ardent wish was to become an artiste. He befriended fishermen and ventured into sea along with them. And, he did rigorous exercise to maintain a strong body in good shape. His father, totally disapproving of his creative exploits and attitude used to reprove and punish him even. Vittalacharya, who couldn’t accept his father’s reproof ran away from home and joined a touring talkies. Back then, the touring talkies would camp at various places and run movie shows. Fortunately for him, Vittalacharya got introduced to the then famous director Shantaram. He learned the art of filmmaking from this noted veteran director who taught him the intricacies of the art.
Vittalacharya, together with his friends, produced seven films. He started his own film production company Vittal Productions in the year 1951. Grand sets, opulent costumes and jewelry and special effects of ‘Mayajaal’ became part of his movies. Leading stars like N. T. Rama Rao, Kanthaa Rao, Rajanana, Ranga Rao, Prabhakar Reddy, Satyanarayana, Rajkumar, Jayalalitha, Devika, Krishnakumari, K. R. Vijaya, Saroja Devi, Anjali Devi, Jothilakshmi, Jayamalini, etc. all came forward with great interest to work in his movies. He would dub his Telugu movies in Tamil and Kannada languages. ‘Kanyadhana’, ‘Padaala Bairavi’, ‘Jeya Vijaya’, ‘Varalakshmi viratham’, ‘Madanakamaraja kathaa’, ‘Veerakesari’, ‘Akki piduku’, ‘Akki paratta’, ‘Kanthi kotta rahasyam’, ‘Akki veerudu’, ‘Veera thilakam’, ‘Maaya mothiram’, ‘Manthira kumaran’, ‘Jeganmohini’, ‘Gandarva kanni’, ‘Nava mohini’ and ‘Mohini sabhadam’ are some of his films that were booming box-office hits.
Though he was a big shot in the Telugu film industry, he continued to live in Chennai. His house was on Gangadeeswara Koil Street at Purasawalkam. I had met him at his residence on a few occasions. Whenever I photographed him he would insist that no flash should be used as it would affect his eyes.
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