Thespian of Telugu filmdom, Jamuna, showered praise on G. Amruthalatha, founder of the annual Apurupa awards, for promoting Telugu literature and culture and making efforts to bring to the fore talent of several unsung personalities.
As honorary guest, she was attending the awards function on the Sri Apurupa Venkateswaralayam premises at Mamidipally on NH-63.
Presiding over the Bala Kavi Sammelanam after the awards presentation, noted Telugu poet and writer V.P. Chandan Rao said that seeing the potential of the 66 child participants in the sammelanam, one could say Sri Sris, Dasarathis and CiNaRes were in the making.
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On the occasion, writer Prabhakar Jain, who was the chief guest, released an anthology of poems titled ‘Sarpayagam’ put together by students of Vijaya High Schools in Nizamabad and Armoor, and said each of the 66 poems strongly condemned the rising sexual assaults on women and criticised the social stigma attached to the victims/ survivors.
Noted film director and writer Akkineni Kutumba Rao said children’s poetry was remarkably different from Telugu poetry of today. The expression of feelings on the current issue was sharp and thought provoking, he opined.
Earlier, the Apurupa awards for the year 2019 were presented to Chandra Prakash (stage play); Laxma Reddy (social service); Amballa Janardhan (story writing); Devika Raj (light music); Nirmalananda Swami (classical music); Mallavarapu Chinnaiah (novel writing) and Katragadda Bharati (limbs donation).
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For the year 2020, the awards were given to Sharada Hanmandlu (essay writing); Vamsi Pratap (dance); Kasarla Naresh Rao (poetry); Ghanapuram Devender (commentary); Kokila Nagaraju (folklore) and Joshi Madhusudana Sarma (spiritualism).
Each of the awards carry a cash prize of ₹5,116, a shawl and a memento. Nellutla Ramadevi anchored the function and literary figure Meka Ramaswami, and social workers G. Raja Reddy and K. Narender Reddy were present.