"దేశ భాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స" - తుళువ రాజు శ్రీకృష్ణదేవరాయ
"dESa bhAshalaMdu telugu lessa" - tuLuva rAju SrI kRshNadEvarAya
Telugu is the sweetest among all languages of the Land - Great Tuluva Emperor Sri Krishnadeva Raya, 16th Century

తెలుగు మాట...తేనె ఊట
TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey

మంచిని పంచుదాము వడపోసిన తేనీటి రూపం లో
తేనెకన్న మంచిదని తెలుగును చాటుదాము వేనోల్ల
ఇదే నా ఆకాంక్ష, అందరి నుంచి కోరుకునె చిరు మాట

"TELUGU - Italian of the East" - Niccolo Da Conti, 15th Century


"సుందర తెలుంగిళ్ పాటిసైతు" - శ్రీ సుబ్రహ్మణ్య భారతి
"suMdara teluMgiL paaTisaitu" - SrI subrahmaNya bhArati
Let us sing in Sweet Telugu - Tamil poet Sri Subrahmanya Bharati, 20th Century

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ 51వ రాష్ట్ర అవతరణ దినోత్సవ శుభాకాంక్షలు


హైదరాబాద్‌, నవంబర్‌ 1 : నేడు రాష్ట్రావతరణ దినోత్సవం. చెల్లాచెదురుగా ఉన్న తెలుగువారిని ఒక్క తాటిపై నిలిపేందుకు తెలుగు భాషకు గౌరవం కల్పించేందుకు ప్రత్యేక రాష్ట్రం కోరుతూ పొట్టిశ్రీరాములు తన ప్రాణాలనే త్యాగం చేశారు. నేటికి తెలుగువారికి ఓ రాష్ట్రం ఏర్పడి 51 సంవత్సరాలు. ఈ సందర్భంగా ముఖ్యమంత్రి రాజశేఖరరెడ్డి, ప్రతిపక్షనేత చంద్రబాబునాయుడు రాష్ట్ర ప్రజలకు శుభాకాంక్షలు తెలిపారు. ఆనాటి నాయకుల సేవలను కొనియాడారు. రాష్ట్రవతరణ సందర్భంగా రాష్ట్రవ్యాప్తంగా ఉత్సవాలు, ప్రత్యేక కార్యక్రమాలు జరుగుతున్నాయి. హైదరాబాద్‌లోని ఎన్టీఆర్‌ స్టేడియంలో ఘనంగా ఉత్సవాలు నిర్వహించారు. ముఖ్యమంత్రి రాజశేఖరరెడ్డి ఇందులో పాల్గొని ప్రసంగించారు. తమ ప్రభుత్వం ప్రవేశపెట్టిన సంక్షేమ పథకాలను గురించి వివరించారు. పేద, బడుగు బలహీనవర్గాల అభ్యున్నతికి తమ ప్రభుత్వం కట్టుబడి ఉందని స్పష్టం చేశారు. జలయజ్ఞ ఫలాలు రైతులకు త్వరగా అందేలా చూస్తామని, దీనిగురించి వ్యవసాయశాఖ ప్రచారం చేపట్టాలన్నారు. అయితే జలయజ్ఞానికి కొన్ని శక్తులు అడ్డుపడుతున్నాయన్నారు. ఉచిత విద్యుత్‌ సాధ్యమేనని తాము నిరూపించామన్నారు. నిరుద్యోగ యువతకోసం రాజీవ్‌ ఉద్యోగశ్రీని పక్కాగా అమలుచేస్తామన్నారు. వరికి మద్దతుధర పెంచాలని కోరుతూ కేంద్రానికి ముందే లేఖ రాశామని, దీనిపై తిరిగి ఈనెల 11న ఢిల్లీ వెళ్లి ప్రయత్నిస్తామన్నారు.
Courtesy: ఈనాడు


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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Telugu Linguists’ Forum meet - Nov. 6th & 7th

HYDERABAD: Scholars from various parts of the country will participate in the Telugu Linguists Forum’s first national conference being organised on November 6 and 7 at the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, University of Hyderabad, Gachibowli.

The main aim of the conference is to bring linguists on a single platform and discuss the various theatrical and applied issues related to Telugu, said K. Rajyarama, coordinator, and J. Prabhakar Rao, general secretary of the forum.

There would be presentations on various aspects of Telugu linguistics, place of Telugu among the Dravidian languages, modern methods of language teaching, computerising Telugu, as home language, etc.

Courtesy: The Hindu


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Telugu varsity for Simmanna

VISAKHAPATNAM: Writer and critic V. Simmanna has bagged a prestigious award from Telugu University. Prof. Simmanna, who teaches in the Telugu Department of the School of Distance Education, Andhra University, has written 26 books. His books తెలుగు భాష చరిత్ర (Telugu Basha Charitra) and తెలుగు సాహిత్య విమర్శ సిద్ధాంతాలు (Telugu Saahitya Vimarsha Siddantalu) are useful to students preparing for competitive exams. The award ధర్మ నిధి (Dharma Nidhi) will be presented him on Nov 5.

Courtesy: The Hindu


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Sunday, October 28, 2007

అతిథి tops Chennai box office



"Mahesh Babu has once again proved that he is the king of opening, as his Athithi took an awesome four day opening and is the number one for the Dassera weekend, netting nearly Rs 21 Lakhs from four Chennai screens. At number two is Yash Raj's Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, at three is Bhool Bhulaiyaa. In the fourth position is Malaikottai, which is steady and in the fifth place is Katrathu Tamizh."

*****

The Prince is back!

Mahesh Babu, (known as `Prince` among his fans) the Telugu superstar is the king at Chennai Box-Office, among other language stars in the city. No Bollywood hero has been able to break Mahesh's, Pokkiri record of Rs 43 lakhs distributors share from Chennai city!

The man's opening in Chennai is awesome, as he has a phenomenal reach among not only Telugus, but also among Tamil youth. Remember Mahesh son of Telugu actor Krishna, grew up in Chennai and was a decent opening batsman for St Bede's school, in Mylapore.

They simply love his action, dancing and soft romantic scenes, which are a major highlight in all his films. Recently all his Telugu films have been dubbed into Tamil. Our Ilayathalapathy has made the maximum number of Mahesh remakes into Tamil. A lot of top actors and directors in Kollywood are planning to watch Athithi late tonight at a sneak preview!

Tomorrow Mahesh's Athithi, is releasing in five Chennai screens including theatre like Abhirami in Puraswakkam area, a traditional Tamil area, where no Telugu film has released before! And believe it or not some theatres in Chennai have paid attractive MGs to screen the film!

Athithi has Amrita Rao in the female lead, with Malaika Arora Khan doing an item number, and Sameera Reddy doing a cameo, with rocking songs by Mani Sharma. The film directed by Surendar Reddy and produced by Ramesh Babu (Mahesh's brother) is releasing worldwide in 712 screens, distributed by UTV. It will be the biggest ever south Indian film release after Sivaji.

Courtesy: Sify



athidi athidhi atidhi atidi atithi

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Saturday, October 27, 2007

Judge writes verdict in Telugu

VIJAYAWADA: Third additional senior civil judge GV Subrahmanyam has delivered judgment in a civil case in Telugu language for the first time in the history of Krishna district.

The court language has been English since Independence in the absence of any work on preparing legal terminology in Telugu language.

When a plaintiff filed a suit seeking recovery of amount by producing a promissory note, the defendant submitted his reply to the court in Telugu. The judge delivered his judgment in Telugu after hearing the arguments of both sides to make the judgment easily understandable to both the parties.

Several advocates opined that judgments in Telugu language would pave the way for bringing awareness among people on legal matters and Acts.

Courtesy: NewIndpress


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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Proof to claim classical status for Telugu

The ఆంద్రు (andru) in Andhra had Dravidian roots, says expert

Definite link between ancient Andhra and Harappa civilizations

Dravidian roots quite visible in the Indus Valley script, says Mahadevan

HYDERABAD: The AP Official Languages Commission has cited yet another evidence to claim classical language status for Telugu.

This is a recent observation by Iravatham Mahadevan, an authority on Indus Valley civilization, that there was a definite link between ancient Andhra and Harappa civilizations.

Mr. Mahadevan, a retired IAS officer, presented a paper on “Dravidian roots in Indus Civilization” at a conference held recently at Kuppam in connection with the 10th convocation of Dravidian University. He reasoned that the “andru” in Andhra sound, had Dravidian roots.

According to press note issued by the commission here on Thursday, he contended that though the Indus Valley script had not been fully deciphered in spite of continuous research, Dravidian roots were quite visible in the Indus Valley script. The conference was chaired by the university Vice-Chancellor G. Lakshminarayana and attended by the commission chairman A. B. K. Prasad.

Mr. Mahadevan said there was tremendous influence of Dravidian roots on all Indo-Aryan languages, especially those spoken in northern India. He demonstrated 400 to 450 symbols of Indus Valley script found on jars, terracotta and arrows etc. He said the word “ambu” carried the same meaning (arrow) in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.
Serving as base

He concluded that the Dravidian languages served Indus Valley language as the base.

Courtesy: The Hindu

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Tirupati: Telugu Bhasha fete from Nov 22

TIRUPATI: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman and founder-president of తెలుగు సాంస్కృతిక వికాస వేదిక (Telugu Samskruthika Vikasa Vedika) B Karunakar Reddy said Telugu Bhasha Brahmotsavams would be held in the temple town from November 22 to 30.

Addressing a media conference here today, he said the fete would begin with తెలుగు తల్లి రథోత్సవం (Telugu Thalli Rathotsavam). On the second day of Brahmotsavams, 100 teams of folk artistes from Rayalaseema region would perform.

From the third day onwards, literary programmes and conventions would be held. Many litterateurs would take part in Brahmotsavams. Janumaddi Hanumath Shastri, Bapu and other eminent people would attend the event.

The TTD Chairman invited the Telugu associations across the world to participate in the first ever Brahmotsavams to propagate the greatness of Telugu language and culture. He urged students to improve their knowledge of Telugu language and culture by participating in the event.

TTD’s Sapthagiri magazine editor Saila Kumar, who is the convener of the programme, and others were also present.

Courtesy: NewIndPress


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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Indian Made Foreign Film

When రజనేష్ దోమలపల్లి (Rajnesh Domalpalli) decided to make a film set in rural Andhra Pradesh he wanted to cast real people—not Tollywood stars. But when he visited schools and hutments, rumours went around that he was after their kidneys. In the end, he got what he wanted. The cast of his first feature film, వనజ (Vanaja), includes a school girl, a bottle sealer with a sixth-grade education who had been married off at the age of nine, a municipal sweeper, an agricultural labourer, a bicycle mechanic (and also Grasim Mr India 2003).

Working with a cast of amateurs, who had never faced a camera before, was tricky enough. But Domalpalli was also making his own debut as a director. Vanaja is the Silicon Valley engineer-turned-film-maker’s Master of Fine Arts thesis film and it’s surprised everyone by winning awards at film festivals around the world and is now enjoying an art house release in the US.

Domalpalli’s excited about the film’s success (The New York Times calls it “an engrossing fairy tale’’) but also acutely aware that films like his have as much chance of really making money as Vanaja herself does of breaking through caste, class and sex barriers in a small village in Andhra Pradesh in the sixties. “The art house scene in India is more or less dead,’’ says Domalpalli sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco. “The big theatres draw the autorickshaw-wallas and college kids who want fun. The multiplexes show Bollywood and Hollywood.’’ Vanaja has three strikes against it—it’s about village life, it has no stars, and it’s in Telugu. “That means it’s a ‘foreign’ film in India,’’ smiles the director.

In America, the language doesn’t matter. It’s just another subtitled film and Domalpalli says it’s been a very mixed audience, mostly Americans “who embrace other cultures’’. He does get a fair sprinkling of Indians too, though some of them complain that it’s 2007 and here’s yet another film about caste, class and a little girl being exploited in a village.

“My India is harsh but beautiful,’’ says Domalpalli. He admits some issues defy cultural translation. Vanaja becomes a servant in Rama Devi’s home, in the hope that in between sweeping and chopping she will learn Kuchipudi. “We too have servants at home,’’ says Domalpalli. “So I can’t point a finger and say this is bad. Our servants at home cannot sit at the table. But just because I am part of the system doesn’t mean I can’t record it.’’

But in directing Vanaja, the director had to reach across the class divide. He remembers how, while making the film in 2002, his cast was sitting around on mats, having lunch. As soon as Domalpalli sat down in their midst all conversation stopped. Eventually they put out a chair for him and set his food there. “Then all the laughter came back,” he remembers. In 2007 he went to a film studio in Andhra Pradesh. The studio boss insisted on taking him to the officer’s canteen. The next time he insisted on going to the canteen his driver went to. “We were totally comfortable but it took five years to get there,” says Domalpalli. “But I still can’t repeat it at home.”

Vanaja is suffused with Domalpalli’s nostalgia for everything that’s fading in the onslaught of urbanisation in India. The folk singers who open the film are now dead and their children have not followed the family footsteps. When he asked young children to sing a traditional Andhra folk song, they were embarrassed but they could belt out the latest Chiranjeevi hit. When Domalpalli found young Koya tribal boys they all wore shirts and pants. He asked one why he had given up his traditional clothes. “Because I want to be like you,” the boy replied.

It was probably the dream of much of his cast. Post-Vanaja their lives have changed but there has been no fairy-tale ending. The vivacious Mamatha Bhukya who plays Vanaja will probably have a career in films, says Domalpalli, though he worries she will be exploited. Somayya, who played her father, is now a gardener at Domalpalli’s mother’s friend’s house. Krishnamma who plays the old mail is sick but won’t take the medicines prescribed to her by Apollo Hospital, relying instead on tribal remedies. Krishna who plays the postman is married but stuck in the same manual labourer job. Krishna’s younger brother Prabhu lives with Domalpalli’s parents and is enrolled in an English-medium school but is having a tough time.

“So it’s mixed,” says Domalpalli with a smile. But he didn’t make a film to start a social revolution. “I just wanted to record India, the memories of my childhood, even the bad things. That’s why I named it Vanaja or water lily, it grows in the muck, but it grows into something beautiful.’’

Courtesy: TOI


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Chennai - A Telugu name (?)

"The chief minister had been informed that ‘Madras’, like Bombay, was actually a Portuguese coinage, derived either from a trader named Madeiros or a prince called Madrie. ‘Madras is not a Tamil name,’ announced the chief chauvinist to justify his decision to rename the city of ‘Chennai’, the word used (though not always) by Tamil speakers.

Once again, name recognition — Madras kerchiefs, Madras jackets, Bleeding Madras, the Madras monitoring system — went by the board as Chennai was adopted without serious debate. More unfortunately, however, the chief minister had overlooked the weight of evidence that Madras was indeed a Tamil name (derived, alternative theories go, from the name of a local fisherman, Madarasan; or from the local Muslim religious schools, madarasas; or from madhu-ras, from the Sanskrit and Tamil words for honey). Worse, he had also overlooked the embarrassing fact that Chennai was not, as he had asserted, of Tamil origin.

It came from the name of Chennappa Naicker, the Raja of Chandragiri, who granted the British the right to trade on the Coromandel coast — and who was a Telugu speaker from what is today Andhra Pradesh. So bad history was worse lexicography, but in India-that-is-Bharat it is good politics."

- Shashi Tharoor

Read the complete article by Shashi Tharoor

Courtesy: Business Standard


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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Textures of Time: Writing History in South India

Book Review by Sunil


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Monday, October 15, 2007

How do you say 'American Idol' in Telugu

రఘురాం వడరేవు
RAGHURAM VADAREVU

The Associated Press


http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_entertainment/etv/


Across the country, countless immigrant parents and families who yearn for the sights and sounds of the home they left behind are tuning into ethnic language television.

There are channels in dozens of languages, from Arabic, Mandarin and Polish to Vietnamese, Portuguese and Urdu. There are channels called CTI Zhong Tian, TV Polonia, TV Globo and GEO TV.

Each night, parents (and sometimes their children) gather to watch these programs. These shows may be prime time ethnic language versions of American favorites such as "American Idol" and "As The World Turns." Or they may be shows original to the culture from where they come.

While the parents cozy up to the couch when their imported shows hit the tube, sometimes their immigrant children (reared in America and accustomed to everything American, for better or for worse) get antsy.

In an asap video, Raghuram Vadarevu explores this particular generation gap bubbling up within his own family now that his dad got a satellite dish and programming from India.

See the video here: http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_entertainment/etv/

Courtesy: theolympian



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Sunday, October 14, 2007

GM Rao: The man who plays to win

15 Oct, 2007, 0006 hrs IST,Soma Banerjee, TNN

NEW DELHI: It was the late 60s and Andhra Pradesh, like Orissa, West Bengal and Kerala, was grappling with Maoist forces, which is now known as the Naxalite movement. A young lad from its heartland — Rajam village in Srikakulam district — who belonged to a small trader community set out to discover the world. Thirty years later, this man is rewriting rules in the most challenging spheres of the Indian economy — infrastructure. Straddling airports, power stations, roads and realty, గ్రంధి మల్లికార్జున రావు (Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao), chairman of the GMR group, is full of more dreams, and ET’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

This serial entrepreneur, with a penchant for executing projects before time, has always been ready to seize every opportunity that came his way. At one point, when India was a licensed economy, GMR had applied for and managed to get licences for a wide range of industries which had very little in common — from earbuds to ferro alloys, jute yarn to sugar, breweries to textiles. What may come as a surprise is that he managed to dabble in quite a few of them, making money every time he exited.

“My father has always believed in focusing on one project till such time that we secure it,” says Kiran Kumar Grandhi, GMR’s younger son who heads the aviation vertical. “This is why we have managed to be successful in whatever we have taken up. Perseverance and single-point focus is the clear message for all of us.”

Daring is a trademark with GMR, even in the most unlikely arenas. He, for instance, accepted the challenge of changing his dietary habits and venturing into non-vegetarian food during his college days, to prove a point to his fellow students. “My classmates at Vizag Engineering College called me pappu (a simple, vegetarian village boy) as I had came from a Dhumpbaldi — a ‘sweet potato school,’ a nickname alluding to village schools in interior Andhra where children would eat roasted sweet potatoes as a special treat,” recalls GMR, revealing that he was the first in his family to join an engineering college.

“They found it difficult to believe that I could contest student elections and often ragged me for being vegetarian. But I had great support and I was not willing to let them down; I won the election and became general secretary of the students’ union. That’s the time I also took to non-vegetarian food like fish to show I could match them on all counts!”

This passion for challenge has not only seen GMR scripting his own story, but also changing his characters and goals to cope up with changing scenarios. His foray into the power sector, for instance, was thanks to the imposition of ‘prohibition’ in the state. In the early 1990s, GMR Technologies got a licence for breweries. Land had been bought and the project was about to begin. Then, chief minister NT Rama Rao decided to impose prohibition in Andhra Pradesh and the company was left groping for an alternative.

“Most of the people had no idea how to deal with that sudden turn of events. But GMR decided to take advantage of a new growth area — the power sector — and soon acquired the licence for a power project in Tamil Nadu, the Basin Bridge power plant in Chennai, which became the first to be developed by the group,” says BVN Rao, a long-time friend and now chairman of the energy vertical. The group now has three operating power projects — Basin Bridge, Tanir Bavi in Karnataka and the Vemagiri Power in Andhra — and has already ventured into the hydel power sector too.

GMR relishes beating competition decisively. Right from those watershed college elections (his victory margin is still a record there!) to bid for road projects where seasoned players were left guessing how the numbers worked, he has a will to win.

“We were always several notches lower in our bid when it came to road projects,” remembers a close associate of GMR, who has been working on the financials of various projects. “Being a first in many, competitors were sceptical. But project execution and financial engineering has been a hallmark of this group. While we bagged projects with low bids, we managed to securitise them as soon they went onstream, which provided us with capital for other projects.”

GMR, who cut his entrepreneurial teeth with a jute yarn facility in Rajam, went on to display his talent in sugar and other agri businesses, ferro-alloys, IT and banking before he finally decided to zero in on infrastructure. It all began when his father, who was a small-time jewellery trader, decided to divide his wealth among his children. GMR’s share of Rs 3 lakh was the seed capital for his first dream project.

“My dream today is to build the group into one of the leading infrastructure companies of the world,” he says with pride. “We have made a beginning overseas with the Istanbul airport project. But lessons learnt from my jute and banking days hold good even today, and I think they have played a large role in shaping my current thinking and outlook.”

Setting up a jute yarn facility taught him a great deal about teamwork and taking his fellow workers along. His banking experience is what he treasures the most. “Turning around non-performing assets and building confidence among customers after a total change in the top management was not easy. We were dealing with public money,” he says. “We had to work individually on each of the NPAs and it required personal relationship skills. It is then that I acquired most of my friends in the banking and financial world.”

GMR, in his capacity as the single-largest shareholder of Vysya Bank, had to walk in almost overnight to rescue it after its then-CEO Ramesh Gelli walked out with the top 100 employees to form the Global Trust Bank. “This was, in some ways, his biggest challenge. It is in his DNA not to leave a project mid-way. We have to pursue it and make it a success,” says BVN Rao.

Running the bank required some tough talking and decisions: in 1985-86, RBI pressurised the bank to increase capital from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 120 lakh. The bank was listed, the shares were sold at Rs 10 each and they gave 18% dividend. Even then, only Rs 30 lakh could be mobilised. He managed just about Rs 3-4 lakh more from friends.

This left him with no other option but to turn to family assets. He persuaded his wife (who is learnt to have been reluctant at that point) to pledge her jewellery, which helped GMR make up the rest of the amount. Even today, he cherishes this example of how his family played a role in building his empire. GMR, incidentally, later exited the bank by selling his around 37% stake to ING.

His entry into the airport sector, however, was a considered decision, and GMR bagged the Delhi airport improvement project and a greenfield airport at Hyderabad. “We decided to get into this sector in 1999 at Hyderabad,” says GMR’s younger son Kiran Grandhi who is now chairman of the airport venture. “That meant dealing with several improbabilities. But we went ahead and it was only in 2004 that we finally bagged the project. We had seen the early bird advantage in other sectors and we were ready to take up the challenge.”

Having relied on taskforces for most of the early projects, GMR has now stepped back to take on the role of a strategiser for the group. And he is taking his new job seriously. A rigorous exercise schedule with meditation is a must to take up the new challenges which require him to stay ahead of the curve — even to beat his sons at the business!

“He is so agile and alert that he beats us at almost everything,” laughs Kiran Grandhi. “I’ve learned most of the things on the shop floor as I was made to get exposure in almost every business of the group. I even spent time at the sugar factory in the village! My father told me that was a live MBA programme!”

GMR, unlike most family-run businesses, has also put in place a succession plan in the form of a family constitution, which has been revealed to shareholders as well, to ensure transparency in operations. On criticism about the family’s role in his companies, GMR has a confident answer: “It’s run by family professionals. Almost 70% of the listed companies on BSE are family-run businesses anyway.”

But even at 58, GMR, has merely written the preface of his entrepreneurship story, it seems. He’s now poised to enter the big league and if early indications are anything to go by, getting awards too could become a habit!

Courtesy: Economic Times
Telugu


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Saturday, October 13, 2007

US Congress honors బాలమురళికృష్ణ


NEW YORK: The US Congress has issued a Congressional recognition honouring Indian music maestro M. Balamuralikrishna for his stellar contribution to Carnatic music for the past seven decades.

The proclamation, successfully piloted by Texas Congressman Nick Lampson, was presented to the music maestro at a function held here last weekend.

New Jersey State Assembly's resolution paying a tribute to Balamuralikrishna was also read out on the occasion. A concert by the maestro followed the function.

The event commemorated Balamuralikrishna's career spanning 70 years as well his 77th birthday. It was organised by Shri Vari Foundation, formed in New York to promote Indian music and dance in the US.

Prakaash M. Swami, a journalist who has launched Shri Vari Foundation, described Balamuralikrishna as a living legend.

His rich contribution to Indian classical music includes sustained efforts to resurrect forgotten ragas and innovating on the tala system.

He has over 400 compositions to his credit including varnams, krithis, javalis, devotional songs and thillanas. He has sung in Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi and French. He has given concerts across the world and cut scores of albums.

The acclaimed vocalist's duets with North Indian vocalists and instrumentalists such as Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar and Hariprasad Chaurasia have forged national integration through music. He is also an accomplished instrumentalist, playing the violin, veena, ganjira, viola and the mridangam with equal ease.

The MBK Trust founded by him in Chennai is carrying out research on music therapy. Balamuralikrishna's contribution to Indian music has won him laurels at home and abroad.

He is a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest Indian civilian honour, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, and Sangeetha Kalanidhi of the Madras Music Academy.

France has bestowed on him the title of Chevalier des Arts et Letters (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris honoured him with the Gandhi Memorial Medal.

Balamuralikrishna has been conferred honorary doctorates by 10 universities in India. He served as pro chancellor of Telugu University in Hyderabad and as first professor of Dr. Radhakrishnan Chair at the Central University, also in Hyderabad.

Chennai-based Balamuralikrishna was born in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. Beginning to perform at the age of eight, he was a child prodigy.

Courtesy: TOI


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Monday, October 08, 2007

Film-crazy techies run riot on the Net

Abhijit Dev Kumar

Spoofs of Telugu movies on youtube turn super hits

Hyderabad: Who doesn’t like a parody? For thousands of techies from Andhra Pradesh working abroad, making spoofs of Telugu movies seems to be the favourite pastime.

Don’t believe it? Then just log onto youtube.com and …search for spoof episodes on even movies like Mahesh Babu’s super hit ‘Pokiri’.

పోకిరి పండుగాడు (Pokiri Pandugadu)

‘Pokiri Pandugadu Spoof- ‘Yes’ AP Consultant’ is the most popular one which registered more than 2,34,090 hits in the last nine months. The spoof takes on a software firm that is hell bent on employing a SAP consultant who happens to be our very own ‘Pandugadu’.

The less than five-minute clip parodies Mahesh Babu, a mercenary in the movie. ‘Pandugadu’ plays the role of the protagonist, but he is the ‘mercenary’ SAP professional who is to be hired by the software company. Interlaced with some shots of the original movie, the clips have become so popular that there are sequels too. “The idea is to make people laugh and relieve them of stress even it is for a few minutes,” Vijay Prabhu, director of the Pokiri spoof told The Hindu over phone. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Vijay has made a series of spoofs on the movie but underlying messages in the series talk about prevailing working conditions of Indians in the United States.

‘Desi’ flavour

Indian students from Purdue University have their own production house. Remakes of Telugu movies with a bit of the ‘desi’ flavour got them several hits on the site, which is quite a hit among students here. Spoofs on films like ‘Athadu’, ‘Gudumba Shankar’, ‘Narashimudu’, ‘Dil’, ‘Anandam’ and ‘Indra’ have been laugh riots.

Some satires take a serious note on the existing problems that Indians face in the West. One such movie is ‘ACF- Tagore Spoof’, that talks about the way Indian consulting business agencies in the United States operate. “It’s a platform for upcoming filmmakers to showcase their talent. Taking movies and making them into comedies is simply amazing. All my friends have seen these movies. The important thing is that they give simple messages which we tend to overlook,” says Apurva Raghotam, a film student at OU.

These parodies may not be hitting the 70 mm screens. But they are a sure hit among Netizens across the world. Lights, camera, spoofs!

Courtesy: The Hindu


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Studies in Telugu language slack, says Buddha Prasad

GUNTUR: Studies in Telugu language are not going on at expected lines, Minister for Animal Husbandry Mandali Buddha Prasad has said. He laid the foundation-stone for an administrative block, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 6.21 crore, on the campus of Acharya Nagarjuna University on Friday.

University Vice- Chancellor V Balamohan Das laid the foundation for an open auditorium in the university.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said though the demand for classical status to Telugu was forthcoming from all quarters, Telugu departments were showing little interest to come up with evidence to prove that Telugu was an ancient language.

On the other hand, Tamils strained their every nerve to get classical status to their language whereas our researchers and Telugu language lovers were not keen as their counterparts in Tamil Nadu did. If the situation continued, Telugu may lose its sheen and finally its existence, the minister added.

If Nannayya had written the Mahabharata in Telugu, the language might have flourished evidence to substantiate our demand for ancient status to Telugu, Prasad observed.

ANU was catering to the educational needs of Guntur and Krishna districts. There was a need to set up another university in Krishna district, he said and added that Chief Minister

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s ambition was to set up a university in every district. MLC Rayapati Srinivas said that after Balamohan Das took over the reins of the university, it was equipped with good infrastructure.

Balamohan Das said that many new buildings were coming up on the campus to provide all facilities to the students.

The open auditorium to come with Rs 1.5 crore would have a student facility centre, he added. YOUTH FEST: A three-day youth festival would be organised in ANU from October 27, said university students affairs coordinator N Samuel. Students from 406 colleges under the university purview would take part in the festival.

The winners of the festival would participate in the inter-varsity youth festival to be held at Padmavati Mahila University at Tirupati from November 12 to 16, he added.

Courtesy: NewIndPress

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Chennai : Fanfare, huge billboards mark release of Telugu movies

K. Lakshmi

The recent festivity was for ‘Chirutha,’ in which Ram Charan Tej plays the lead

CHENNAI: Theatres in the city that screen Telugu films of late are marked by fanfare and huge billboards on the day of film’s release.

Fans of Telugu actors indulge in elaborate celebrations to rejoice the film’s release on the same day as in Andhra Pradesh. Staff of city theatres observed that such enthusiasm by Telugu film fans associations emerged in the city in the last five years.

The recent festivity in the city was for the much-awaited film, చిరుత (Chirutha) with debutant actor Ram Charan Tej, son of matinee idol Chiranjeevi, in the lead. Several fans who thronged the theatres burst firecrackers and distributed sweets to celebrate the release.

A staff of the Casino theatre said the merriment was almost on par with the celebration for Tamil movies. Huge billboards were also put up by members of Telugu film fans association to cheer the movie. However, most of these fans associations that are formed by a group of youngsters or college students are short-lived.

Earlier, the students used their college names in the billboards. After they faced disciplinary action from their colleges, they had formed associations, he said.

Courtesy: The Hindu


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Thursday, October 04, 2007

NetVibes in Telugu



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అతిధి

Saw the above at an Indian store in Mountain View today



UTV plans big release for Telugu film Athidhi


By ROHINI BHANDARI
1 October 2007, 07:49 PM



MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures' maiden Telugu co-production venture with Krishna Production - Athidhi -will be released on the 18 October on occasion of Dussehra.

To hit the right notes in Tollywood, UTV is planning the widest ever release for this Mahesh Babu starrer with approximately 400 prints worldwide. In addition to this the promotion and marketing spends for the movie are close to Rs 35 - 40 million (Rs 3.5 - 4 crores).

Moreover, cashing in on Mahesh Babu's new look in the movie, three vinyl posters of Athidhi were recently put up at Prasad multiplex in Hyderabad. Since the multiplex is situated at a prime location, UTV's associate vice president India distribution Suniel Wadhwa, claims that close to six lakh people may have already set their eyes on these posters within just a few days. Also this is the first of its kind promotion for a Telugu film.

Mahesh Babu endorsed Thums Up has been roped in for a Rs 15 million (Rs 1.5 crore) marketing campaign. In addition to this, BIG FM and Kingfisher too will have marketing spends amounting to Rs 5 million (Rs 50 lakhs) and Rs 8 million (Rs 80 lakhs) respectively. Further UTV too is shelling out Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) for the promotional materials and activities.

Mahesh Babu's previous blockbuster Pokiri had released with approximately 220 prints in its first week and the number kept increasing gradually as the movie picked up. His fans are predicting that Athidhi would also be a big hit and definitely complete 100 days again on the lines of Pokiri.

Wadhwa adds, "UTV is planning a simultaneous release of the movie, but the details will be clear only closer to the release date." While UTV will be distributing the movie in Nizam, Krishna, Vellor and Ceaded through their offices in Hyderabad and Vijaywada; Pyramid Saimira will distribute the movie in Vizag, East Godavari, West Godavari and Guntur. A total of 300 prints will be released in Andhra Pradesh only.

Approximately 40 prints have been kept aside for Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and North India (Bombay, Pune, Delhi, Solapur, Kolhapur, Satara etc.). While Kaveri Cinema will distribute the movie in Karnataka the distributor for Tamil Nadu is yet to be finalised. Prawasi Movies will release the movie in overseas with approximately 60 prints with US being the major market.

Athidhi has been made on a budget of Rs 185 million (Rs 18.5 crores). Amrita Rao stars alongside Mahesh Babu in the movie. The film is an action – drama and its action sequences have been shot in a stylized fashion and will form a major highlight of the film.

Courtesy: BusinessofCinema.com

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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Savoring Telangana flavor in the US

The Telangana festival ‘Bathukamma’ was celebrated recently in San Francisco by a group of NRIs

Rooted: NRIs celebrating ‘Bathukamma’ in San Francisco

HYDERABAD: It was an event hundreds of Telugu families from Telangana, who have made America their home, will remember for long. Dozens of Telugu women dressed in traditional silks, brought ‘Bathukammas’ to Lake Elizabeth Park, Bay Area, San Francisco in California, where the typical Telangana festival was organised on Sunday.

Eye-pleasing floral arrangements on plates, with turmeric on top, were placed on the ground. Women formed circles, clapped and sang ‘Bathukamma, bathukamma uyyalo, bangaru bathkamma uyyalo’, while moving around them. The three-day celebrations culminated in the immersion of ‘Bathkammas’ in the lake. During the festivities, Telangana delicacies were served to the gathering and it was a gourmet’s delightsaid Buchanna Gajula, president, Telangana Cultural Association (TCA), Bay Area.

“The first Bathukamma began in the afternoon and women split into groups, taking turns to dance and sing,” he said, adding that men enjoyed kite-flying with kids. “Telangana games like marble spoon and musical chairs for women, kept the gathering busy.”

Rendition of ‘Ramayana’ in Telangana dialect by Dilip Kondiparthy, TCA vice-president, drew applause, while the ‘Jaya Jaya Telangana Janani’ sung by Arshad Hussain, another vice-president, had the crowd joining in chorus. The park echoed with slogans of ‘Jai Telangana’.

A “peerla panduga” was also organised.

Courtesy: The Hindu


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