Vb Rajendraprasad: ‘Jagapati’ Babu Rajendraprasad!: Many producers in Telugu cinema have produced films according to their taste and have stood in the minds of the people. VB Rajendraprasad, the head of Jagapathi Art Pictures, has a unique position among such. Rajendra Prasad is impressive not only as a producer but also as a director. The banner of ‘Jagapati’ has earned an indelible place in the minds of the people. Rajendra Prasad has given a lot of importance to songs in his films. In the following days, he mixed songs from his films, added a bit of commentary, and released them in two parts titled ‘Chitapatachinukulu’. There is no other producer-director who has impressed me in this way.
Veeramachaneni Babu Rajendraprasad was born on 4th November 1932. Dokiparru village of Krishna district is his native place. His younger siblings were Lakshminarasamma and Jagapathi Chaudhary. A farming family. Financial strength would be good. Rajendra Prasad started acting in plays while studying and became interested in movies. ‘Shankarabharanam’ Edida Nageswara Rao, who became known as a passionate producer in their later days, was his childhood friend. Both of them together established a cultural organization called ‘Raghava Kalasamiti’ and staged plays under that banner. In the drama ‘Inspector General’, she played the role of a woman and won the award for the best actress. Rajendraprasad joined Madras to become an actor. There he met his favorite hero Einar. He tried in some movies with his encouragement. But, there was no result. With that, he established the banner ‘Jagapati Art Pictures’ named after his father, and produced the film ‘Annapurna’ with Jaggaiah as the protagonist and Jamuna as the heroine as his first attempt. Directed by V. Madhusudana Rao, this film earned Rajendra Prasad a good name as a producer.
While his first film was ‘Annapurna’, he produced ‘Aaradhana’ with his favorite hero Aynor. The movie was also well-received. Since then, he has been producing films with Ayanna. Also, he used to make sure that all his movie titles started with the English letter ‘A’. Rajendra Prasad produced films under the direction of V. Madhusudana Rao till “Athmabalam, Thootlu, Satyapararu, Vatchuvanthulu”. Later he produced ‘Akkachellelu’ under the direction of editor A. Sanjeevi. Then with the encouragement of Myanmar, he became a director himself and produced ‘Dasarabullodu’. This colorful film became a blockbuster in 1971. ‘Dasarabullodu’ has gone down in history as the first golden festival for Ayanna. On top of that, he produced and directed films like “Bangaru Babu, Bangarubommalu, Ramakrishnulu, SP Bhaiakar, and Mathathabhartala Bandham” with Akkineni. Among these, YTR acted in ‘Ramakrishnulu’ and Rama Rao’s son Balakrishna Aynar in ‘Bharya Bharthala Bandham’.
Rajendra Prasad produced the films “Manchimanasulu, Picchimaraju” with Sobhan Babu as the hero. As a remake of ‘Bangaru Babu’ in Tamil, ‘Engal Thanga Raja’ was a success. ‘Rashte Pyaar Ki’ was produced as a remake of ‘Dussehra Bullodu’ in Hindi. Produced by Akkineni Ananda Rao, ‘Angara Dongale’ was directed by VB Rajendra Prasad. ‘All Thieves’ is based on the Hindi hit ‘Victoria 203’. Churagondi movie is also well-received in Telugu.
In the following days, the film ‘Bangarubullodu’ starring Balakrishna was produced under the direction of Raviraja Pinishetti, and the film became a huge success. VB Rajendraprasad produced ‘Captain Nagarjuna’ under his own direction as Nagarjuna was the hero. Later he made ‘Killer’ under the direction of Fazil with Nag as the hero. ‘Sinhaswapnam’ was produced under the direction of V. Madhusudan Rao introducing his son Jagapathi Babu as the hero. After that films like ‘Bhale Bullodu, and Pellipeetalu’ were screened with Tanayudu as the hero. None of those movies could entertain that much. Since then, Rajendra Prasad has been away from films.
Rajendra Prasad was one of those who worked hard to establish Telugu cinema in Hyderabad. He was the President of the Film Nagar Housing Society for many days. It is remarkable that the construction of Deivasannidhanam in Film Nagar was going on during his reign. Rajendra Prasad served as chairman of that time till the end. VB Rajendraprasad passed away on 15th January 2015. Even though Rajendra Prasad is physically far away, he has left an indelible mark on the minds of Telugu people through his films.
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