Prasar Bharati officials here have fond memories of their association with renowned artist and film maker Bapu and recalled his magnanimity in permitting their Archives wing to use his illustrations as CD covers on their albums.
Paying tributes to Bapu whose mortal remains were consigned to flames in Chennai on Tuesday, M. Vijaya Saradhi, Deputy Director, Archives (South), Prasar Bharati, said Bapu’s illustrations were used on their albums titled ‘Pandavodyogavijayalu,’ ‘Ganapathi’ and ‘Kanyasulkam’-- famous radio plays.
In the recent past he also customised designs exclusively for Prasar Bharati Archives for the CD- Thiruppavai that comprised the 30 pasurams sung in Tamil by late M.L.Vasantha Kumari and in Telugu by late Srirangam Gopalaratnam thus enriching Thiruppavai series with his master strokes, he said.
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Significantly, the association of the director-writer duo-- Lakshmi Narayana and Mullapudi Venkata Ramana who later became household names of Telugu people as “Bapu-Ramana,” started with All India Radio in their childhood at Madras All India Radio.
The pied piper who attracted them to radio songs, poems and plays was Nyapathi Raghava Rao. It was here that Bapu honed his artistic skills in childhood.
In spite of scaling heights as glitterati of Tollywood, Bapu always expressed his gratitude towards Akashavani which nurtured him during the budding stage. As a mark of respect, he fondly associated with the organisations Akashavani and its sister concern Doordarshan, whenever his services were called for irrespective of the magnitude of the work.
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The otherwise reticent Bapu gave a full length interview to All India Radio on being awarded Padma Shree and recalled his journey with All India Radio since childhood, Mr. Vijaya Saradhi said.