It was quite a delight for Vara Mullapudi to host a reading session titled ‘Ramaneeya Parayanam’, on the occasion of the 85th birth anniversary of his father, popular author and screenwriter late Mullapudi Venkata Ramana at Sunshine Hospitals last week.
A large number of Mullapudi’s well wishers including B.V.S. Rama Rao, Vara Prasad of Hasam Publications, Gurava Reddy, composer Madhavapeddi Suresh and writer Sri Ramana were present at the event “The younger lot, who registered through a social media invitation, turned up in good numbers. Had he been alive, he would have been happy to have the attention of such normal readers,” says a satisfied Vara. The presence of youngsters proved that the legendary author continues to appeal to youngsters.
The session was a brainchild of Vara’s brother-in-law, Karthik Sundaram, who was also the primary architect behind converting the writer’s works into audio books in the US, which has turned out to be quite a rage there.
With Sri Ramana’s book Mithunam being adapted into a film by Tanikella Bharani, didn’t it prompt Vara to work on similar adaptations of his father’s stories? He avers, “ Nannagaru was somehow particular that his works weren’t quite the recipe for cinema. Most of the stories that he penned were between 1957 and 1964, after which he got into films. Though we persuaded him to write more, he could only manage Sri Krishna Leelalu in 1987. He was of the opinion that he was no more in the writer’s zone.”
However, that doesn’t discount Vara’s persistent attempts to expand the reach of his works in the past. He was quite keen on working on the small-screen version of Budugu , one of the writer’s most popular works to date; he had even shot a test episode with some actors in 1991. The delay in getting the slots approved by Doordarshan was getting extensive by which time the lead performers were growing in age. He had no option but to shelve it.
A few years later, some of his father’s short stories got made into teleserials like Varalakshmi Vratam, Acheti Cheta and Bhushanam Vyragyam, on Gemini TV.
What set Venkata Ramana’s literary works apart was the blend of emotional depth and humour, in a language that exuded nativity, which he says is a reflection of his father’s personality. He had finally scripted Sri Rama Rajyam , a reworking of NTR’s Lavakusa to a generation that needed its essence conveyed in simpler language.
Despite enjoying literary brilliance, financial hassles consistently haunted Ramana and to an extent Bapu as well. “They gave everything to the craft without falling prey to trends or seeking immediate profits and lived life on their own terms. That was their strength and weakness on an equal measure,” Vara recalls.
Vara is yet again wielding the megaphone for Kundanapu Bomma , which he dedicates to his father and his soul mate, filmmaker Bapu. Besides another book-reading session for July 26 in Chennai, he’s planning to launch Mullapudi’s audio books to Indian readers for this Dasara
