Bhakta Prahlada (1932 film)

Bhakta Prahlada
Directed by	H. M. Reddy C. S. R.
Produced by	H. M. Reddy
Written by	Surabhi Nataka
Release dates	1932 (1932)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Bhakta Prahlada is the first Telugu full length talkie film, based on The Story of Narasimha and Prahlada made by H. M. Reddy, a pioneer of the Indian film industry. It is a talkie about a devotee Prahlada in Hindu mythology.

History

A still from the film

Ardeshir Irani was planning to make the first Indian talkie movie Alam Ara in Hindi in 1931. H. M. Reddy was assistant director for that film, he brought the entire drama team of A play Prahalada written by Dharmavaram Ramakrishnamacharyulu, under supervision of C.S.R. Anjaneyulu, to Bombay and H. M. Reddy made the first south Indian talkie in Telugu on the sets of Alam Ara.

The very famous theatre group in Andhra Pradesh, ‘Surabhi’ had various performances of the play ‘Bhakta Prahlada’, which was written by the great playwright and ‘Andhranataka Pitamaha’ Dharmavarapu Ramakrishnacharyulu. In the film, in addition to dialogues and poems, H.M. Reddy made Chandala Kesavadasu to pen songs too. The great poet Kesavadasu, thus remains in the history of Telugu Cinema to have penned its first song.

Cast

• Hiranya Kasapa - Municipalli Subbhaiah, also known as Valluru Subbaiah.
• Prahlada - Sudheerbabu Naguboina
• Leelavathi - Surabhi Kamalabai
• Indra - Dorasami Naidu.
• Modhabbai, (friend of Prahlada) - L. V. Prasad
• B. V. Subbarao and Chitrapu Narasimha Rao - miscellaneous

Crew

• Producer - H. M. Reddy under Krishna Movies banner.
• Director - C. S. R. and H. M. Reddy
• Assistant Director - L.V.Prasad.
• Background music - H. R. PadmaNabha Sastri.
• Dialogues - Dharmavaram Ramakrishnamacharyulu.
• Lyrics - Chandala Kesavadasu
• Camera - Govardhanabai Patel
• Studios - Imperial studio in Bombay.

Release

"After scouting for evidence in libraries in Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai, I finally stumbled upon ‘The Bombay Government Gazette -Part I’ (page no.:313) dated February 4, 1932 at the National Film Archives, Pune, which had the dates of films produced and censored in Bombay. The censor date of Bhaktha Prahlada was given in it as January 22, 1932. The Bombay Chronicle carried an advertisement on January 31, 1932 that the film would be released soon. And it was released on February 6, 1932 at Krishna Cinema on New Charlie Road, Bombay. The Times of India carried a review of the film on the same day of its release as preview show was held before its release. Subsequently, it was released in Andhra and then on April 2, 1932 at the National Picture Palace (later renamed as Broadway Talkies), Madras. All this clearly proves that Bhaktha Prahlada was released only in 1932."

— Film historian Rentala Jayadeva proving the release date of Bhakta Prahlada

The release of the film which is the first Telugu talkie, was generally considered to have released on 15 September 1931 but it was eventually revealed to have been released on 6 February 1932.

See also

• Bhaktha Prahlada (1942 film)
• Bhakta Prahlada (1967 film)

External links

• Bhakta Prahlada at IMDb
• History of first telugu talk movie Bhakta Prahlada^{[source needs translation]}

Movie info:: http://www.tollywoodtimes.com/en/movie/review/Bhakta-Prahalada-1932/3vom1zpkkk