Here is a 75-year-old rickshaw puller who regularly visits places where cultural events take place. Connoisseurs of fine arts can find him at Government Music College, Sivaramakshetram, and Tummalpalalli Kshetrayya Kalakshetram.
The rickshaw puller, Sattipandu, drives an aged-pleader to these places, and patiently waits for his return. Ask him if he was a passive spectator. Sattipandu would not agree. “I see myself on the stage whenever I watch a drama or a cultural programme,” he says.
Sattipandu has a reason. He acted in more than 2,500 plays ever since he developed a passion for theatre. His first stage performance was at the age of 30.
He says he never thought he would become a drama artist. “But, destiny willed otherwise. I was loitering on Eluru Road and overheard someone singing padyalu from a drama. I scaled up to see who it was. As I had an inclination for film songs and music, I gave some suggestions to the troupe there. And I was drawn into the drama field,” he recalls.
“I acted in Chintamani and other plays in lead roles. I never back looked for decades,” says.
Despite all this transformation and newly-found love for theatre, Sattipandu never gave up on his first job: rickshaw pulling.
“More than anything else, I needed to continue to pull the rickshaw,” Sattipandu says, who was totally smitten by the stage.
