Telugu movie mogul gets Phalke award

HYDERABAD: On Thursday afternoon, Tollywood erupted into joy as word spread that one of its main pillars, producer D Ramanaidu, was selected for the country’s highest honour in films, the Dada Saheb Phalke award for the year 2009. But amidst all the celebrations that began spontaneously, the man who was being celebrated was missing.
The 74-year-old star producer was in action, like he has been for last 47 years thoroughly engrossed in his next production.‘Movie mogul’ Ramanaidu did not even know that the big honour had come his way as he was shooting in an inaccessible place in Araku valley near Visakhapatnam.
"He is very systematic about his work. You can understand that he is also sincere and honest with it from the fact that at this age, he is personally supervising the shooting of his next film in an inaccessible place in Araku," said producer D Suresh Babu, son of the veteran film producer.
"Of course, he is extremely happy at the award that has come his way," Suresh Babu later said. Later in the evening, when TOI was able to reach Ramanaidu on the phone, and asked him about what keeps him going at his age, he quipped: "When I am at work, I feel young."
Expressing great joy at getting the nation’s highest honour, Ramanaidu said the award did not really mean that he has achieved everything. "I am planning to make a movie in Punjabi. With that, I would have made films in all 13 major Indian languages. That will make me the No. 1," he said.
From Andhra Pradesh, thespian actor Akkineni Nageshwara Rao in 1991 was selected for the prestigious Phalke award. In 1983, actor, director, producer, L V Prasad was also given the award.
Ramanaidu is one producer who derives great satisfaction with his work. At the Ramanaidu Studios at Filmnagar which he established, it is a delight for visitors to walk past the ground floor corridor of the main building.
Framed photographs of some of the biggest stars and artistes, directors and technicians of the Telugu film industry adorn the walls.
Quite a lot of them either got a break in films because of Ramanaidu or they made a mark in the industry when they acted in a film produced by Ramanaidu.