Kongara Jaggayya

Kongara Jaggayya (31 December, 1928 – 5 March, 2004; also transliterated as Jaggaiah) was a multi-faceted personality from Andhra Pradesh, India, more famous as a Telugu actor in films and plays. He was popularly known as "Kanchu Kantam" Jaggayya" (telugu: Kanchu=bronze; Kantam=voice) for his booming voice.

Early life

Jaggayya was born in a well-to-do family in Morampudi village near Tenali in Guntur district. He started acting at the age of 11, with the role of Lava in a Hindi play. As a student, he joined the Congress party in Tenali, which was involved in the Indian Independence Movement at that time. After his school education, he joined a periodical named "Desabhimani" (meaning "Patriot") as a journalist. Later he worked as an editor for the weekly Andhra Republic. He joined the Andhra-Christian College in Guntur for his higher studies, where N. T. Rama Rao, another famous actor (in his later days) also happened to study at the same time. Both of them acted together in several plays; Jaggayya won the best actor award in three successive years. He got trained in the art of painting under the guidance of Adivi Bapiraju, a famous painter. After working as a teacher for a brief while, he became a news reader in Telugu at the All India Radio for three years in New Delhi.

In films

He debuted in movies with the role of the hero in Tripuraneni Gopichand's "Priyuralu" (lover-girl). However, this and his subsequent movies did not do well. He came back into reckoning when two of his successive movies, "Ardhangi" and "Bangaru Paapa" did very well. He was very active in Telugu films from 1950s to 1970s and later, acted occasionally till his death. He played several roles such as hero, second lead, comedian and villain in several movies.

Voice

He was distinguished for his voice and gave voice-over (dubbed) in almost 100 films. He gave his voice to Sivaji Ganesan in many Telugu movies that the latter acted in, apart from being the voice for his movies dubbed from Tamil. He also dubbed for Richard Attenborough's character of Hammond in the Telugu-dubbed version of the film "Jurassic Park".

In politics

Jaggayya was active in politics right from his student days and was allied with the socialist group within the Congress party. When the group was disbanded, he joined Jayaprakash Narayan's Praja Socialist Party, but returned to Congress in 1956, heeding the call of Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1967, he was elected as a member of the fourth Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from the constituency of Ongole on a Congress Party ticket. He was the first Indian film actor to be elected as a member of parliament.

Literary achievements

He translated Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Geetanjali into telugu under the name "Ravindra Geetha". He also translated Tagore's play "Sacrifice" into Telugu under the name "Balidaanam".

Awards and honours

* Padma Bhushan, a civilian award from the Government of India.
* Title of "Kala Vachaspathi" from the "Sanskrit Viswa Vidyalaya", Delhi
* Honorary D. Litt. from the Telugu University, Hyderabad.
* Title of "Kalaimamani" from Tamil Nadu government.
* Title of "Kalaprapurna" from Andhra University.
* "Padandi Munduku" (Literal translation: Let's go forward), a film produced by him, won Rs. 50,000/- cash award from the government of Andhra Pradesh.

Death

This great Actor/Literaute death was tragic, like most great literature is. He had undergone a Hip Replacement surgery and complications after the surgery resulted in his death.

A tragic end for a great Actor, Poet and Writer. His unparalleled contributions to cinema and art will always remain cherished.

References

*
* [http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/06/stories/2004030602830600.htm Obituary and news item] from The Hindu dated 6 March, 2004.
* [http://www.telugucinema.com/c/stars/KJaggayya.shtml An article on Telugucinema.com]
* [http://www.filmchamber.com/tmpl.asp?it=prfbjagaya An article on FilmChamber.com]