Chittor Nagaiah--one of the greatest indian actors

Vuppaladadiyam Nagiah,

traditionally known as Chittoor V. Nagiah was a wide-ranging celebrity of the South Indian Cinema who was called as the 'actor saint' was well liked as an avid performer, refined music composer, incomparable musician, vocalist, filmmaker and director. He was the first person who got the respect not only from the Telugu film industry as well as the Tamil film industry. He was extremely civilized and sympathetic towards his fellow beings. His life personified like an ocean current, which sprang up out of the blue and fell down instantly.

Nagiah was born on 28th March 1904 in a Telugu Brahmin family at Repalle in Guntur District, in 1904 to the blessed couple Sri Ramalinga Sarma and Smt.Venkata Lakshmamba. Nagiah's ancestors used to be very rich and the family comprised more of Pandits who accomplished Yagas. His parents thought that Nagiah was born by the blessings of the Snake God, Nageswara Swami and named him as 'Nageswaram' but affectionately called him 'Nagu'. At the time when Nagiah was born, his family devolved into very misfortunate circumstances. As there were a lot of hazards in his family, he was taken to Gogunur and from there to Kuppam and again to Thirupathi. There he studied with the help of scholarship provided by the Thirupathi Devasthanam during 1918. He couldn't extend for higher studies as he drew rather more interest in music and stage plays. He completed his B. A. Degree at Chittoor. He worked as a clerk in a local government office and as a news reporter for the new paper 'Andhra Patrika' in Chittoor for a short while but soon he found the was work would not suit him and dropped out.

Nagiah was intensely motivated by the principles of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. He partook in the Indian Freedom struggle namely Salt Sathyagraha, and went behind the bars for about 18 months. Time and again he wielded as an unpaid worker for the Congress party. He entered into an amateur theatre in the company of R. B. Ramakrishna Raju – a political leader and a successful lawyer. Nagiah even assisted the gramophone companies like Hutchins, Twin etc., as the domesticated musician. He brought down many assorted gramophone records just as Classical and light music and some of them were of the great legendary saint and musician, Thyagaraja Swami. Even at that period he brought in some tryouts to bring in the English wordses like 'My lovely lalanaa', 'I love you heart of hearts, sweet heart' and such in Telugu songs. The notorious personages like Musiri Subramania Iyer, and G. N. Balasubramaniam trained him in the Carnatic music. He met all the king pins of music over there and among them was a girl of 11 years who was singing Carnatic music astoundingly… the girl is the music empress M. S. Subbu Lakshmi! Nagiah was not only hallowed with singing potentialities but was also with high-quality composing attainments and gracious looks. He once accorded the Gowhathi Congress conferences with S. Srinivasa Iyyengar, who was a famous advocate in Madras and on their way back, they stayed at Allahabad for a few days. There they stayed at Mothilal Nehruji's Anand Bhavan. He met with a massive assemblage over there. He also saw Kamala Nehru. A young girl with a beautiful complexion and speaking fluent English was loitering among the majestic masters of politics. She used to keenly observe and probed questions at Nagiah while he was singing songs in Tamil and Telugu. The girl was none other than Indira Gandhi who became a distinguished politician in the world.

He later pulled in by stage appearances and worked with 'Rama Vilasa Sabha' a cultural association in Chittoor. He playacted in several stage shows like 'Sarangadhara', 'Viswamithra Chitra Nilayam', 'Savitri', 'Bruhannala' and 'Ramadasu' and represented as Pothana, Vemana, Rama Dasu and Thyagiah. He got gold medal for his female role as 'Chitrangi', in the play 'Sarangadhara'. During that period he was married to Vijaya Lakshmi, but she demised when she was giving birth to a girl child an year after. The incident kept Nagiah shattered for a long time. Later he was constrained to marry Girija, to look after his daughter. Fatefully his daughter deceased of ill health later. Destiny played a worse tragedy with Nagiah as Girija also departed the world when she incurred a miscarriage at eighth month. The blow of Girija's demise drove his father insane and he also dropped dead later. All these sufferings contrived Nagiah severely and he endeavoured for self-annihilation but as luck would have it rescued by his friends. Nagiah lost interest in life at some point, he exited away and stayed at Ramana Maharshi's Ashram and lived like a saint for sometime.

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He did work for the Chennapuri Andhra Maha Sabha (CAMS) a popular cultural Association of Andhras in Madras. On that point, Nagiah acquired a conversance with an affluent auditor Bommi Reddy Narasimha Reddy who had a panache in fine arts. Later they both suited chummy friends. The auditor was none other than B. N. Reddy who became one of the leading filmmakers of India. At that time the grand old man of South Indian cinema - H. M. Reddy, arrived at Madras from Kolhapur and formed called Rohini Pictures with the association of B.N. Reddy. The firm started its first venture in Telugu through the film 'Gruhalakshmi' in 1938. At that time Nagiah happened to saw B.N. Reddy at Rohini Pictures and obviously he got of course a petite role (of Gopinath, Kannamba's brother) as a patriot in that film. His payment for that film was Rs. 750. Since the film was a big hit all over South India it fetched Nagiah an ample notice as his traits, skills and phonation overwhelmed the spectators. The song 'Kallu Maanandoi Baboo Kallu Theravandoi' in that film, which was sung by Nagiah, became very popular in those days. Due to many reasons B.N. Reddy separated from H.M. Reddy and elevated the firm Vahini Pictures, where Nagaiah took part in that worked solemnly for its growth.

'Vande Matharam' (1939) was another hit in which Nagiah played as hero. The film gained him remarkable praises and made him a star hero. As the films 'Sumangali' (1940), 'Devata' (1941), 'Bhakta Potana' (1942), 'Swarga Seema' (1945), 'Thygayya' (1946), 'Yogivemana' (1947) were huge hits he started getting offers from the Telugu and Tamil film industries equally Nagiah became the highest paid actor by the time he was doing the film 'Beedalapatlu'. His performance in the film 'Yogi Vemana' influenced a boy who later turned into a saint and became popular as 'Balayogi'. During 'Devatha' he married Jaya Lakshmi. The film 'Thyagiah' was released in the year 1946 was a fabulous classic film of the South Indian film history (some months ago the Vintage Heritage screened the film and it becharmed remarkable crowds). Nagiah was the producer, director, music director and actor for the film 'Thyagiah'. 'Thyagiah' was again a reverberant hit. After that he made films 'Naa Illu' in 1953 and 'Bhakta Ramadas' in 1964 which turned out to be a droop and Nagiah lost his wealth. Another musical hit of Nagaiah, was the Gemini Studio production, 'Chakradhari', in 1948 based on the story of the Maharashtrian potter-saint Gora Kumbhar, in the film Nagiah played the title role. Nagiah became very famous for his songs in this film.

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He once flourished with five houses 2-3 cars, and with large crowds of people around him at that time. His remuneration in those days was one lakh rupees for a film. He used to offer a lions share out of his earnings to the Congress Party and wared a lot for politicians and their families. His generosities lead him down resulting to turn a loss. To make both ends meet, the grand artiste had no other pick than to play even cowboy roles in substandard films. Once Nagiah said about the state of affairs to his friend Bhashyam (an extremely famous Tamil author with the pen name 'Sandilyan') 'Udhara nimiththam bahukrutha vesham!' which meant for the sake of the stomach, one has to play many roles, the dialogue left his friend with tears. As an established star and talented actor Nagaiah was in demand to do character roles in several Tamil and Telugu Films. Nagiah played the lead role of Jean Val Jean and composed music along with A. Rama Rao, in the film 'Ezhai Padum Paadu' (based on the famous French classic Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables') in early 1950's, which was made by K. Ramnoth of Vahini Studios in Coimbattore. The film remained a classic in the South Indian film history. This film was also done in Telugu and later in Hindi. Later Nagiah produced and acted in the film 'Bhagyalakshmi' in 1943, which was directed by P.Pulliah in Telugu.

Nagiah was distinctive in his approach towards mankind. He always used to salute every traffic constable while traveling in car and he felt it as an accolade he is offering to them who stands under the sun only to help and guide the people. He was far famed for his hospitality. His unselfishness surpassed the limits and was root cause for his fiscal devastation. He treated everybody as true friend and admitted everyone to take total advantage of his benevolence. Most of the times he went out of the way to expend money only to give pleasures and happiness to people irrespective of their little acquaintance. He had no children of his own yet he was called as 'naannagaaru' (father) by most of the people in film industry as he treated everybody as his own children. Nagiah was a man of Old World values and culture. Yet he fought a gallant battle.

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Woefully after his demise he was blanked out by the unthankful world. However a few old friends like Inturi Venkateswara Rao (the Telugu film journalist and scholar), struggled to erect a statue of Nagaiah at Chennai (in Panagal Park, T. Nagar), where he lived most of his life. The notorious Indian film journalist and the editor of 'Film India', Baburao Patel, described Nagiah as 'The Paul Muni of India'. Nagiah acted in about 160 Tamil films, and 200 films in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films in his 30 years of film career. He was the first South Indian who got the title 'Padma Sri' by the Government of India. Regarding this Nagiah remarked, "I have only 'Padmam' but no Sri'!' intended that he had only fame but not fortune. Andhra Film Journalists Association selected him as the 'Best Actor' in Film Ballet in the year 1939. The acutely etched out incident in his life was the honour extended by the Mysore and Thiruvankore Maharajas. The Thiruvankur Maharaja ennobled him in the middle of great pandits, royal veterans and amidst the glissando of Nadaswarm. The Maharaja himself made Nagiah to sit beside him on his throne and tendered 'Padapuja' (worshipping the feet). He honoured Nagiah with the title 'Abhinava Thyagaraju'. The Mysore Maharaja awarded him with 101 silver plates, which consisted masses of gold coins. In addition, he bestowed him with a gold chain, which had a pendant of Lord Sri Rama. Was this kind of tending proffered to any other actor in the Indian Film History?

He passed away in Madras on 30th December 1973 at the age of 72. He remained one of the greatest actors that Indian Cinema has seen since it began to talk in 1931.