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If
we happen to meet any non-Telugu people and if our discussion
turns towards films, the first film that comes to our mind
as the best Telugu film is 'Sankara Bharanam'. Sankarabharanam
is the brainchild of quintessential director K Vishwanath.
But it is the JV Somayajulu who delivered what K Viswanath
imagined. He epitomized the role of 'Sankara Sastry' very
well.
Before
joining films, he used to serve the theater lovers with his
stage plays. He acted in the play 'Kanyasulkam' for 500 times
in his theater-career along with his actor brother JV Ramana
Murthy for 45 years.
The
woman behind the success of JV Somayajulu is none but his
mother Ms. Saradamma. She used to encourage her children to
be more righteous by making them imbibe 'Bhagavat Geeta'.
She used to attend all the plays enacted by JV Somayajulu.
After the play is over, she used to arrange dinner for the
crew and used to give valuable suggestions for them to improve
their performance. Whenever there is an actress acting in
Somayajulu's play, she used to provide shelter to her in her
house.
JV
Somayajulu is a passionate lover of 'Kanyasulkam'. His teachers
used to celebrate the birthday of Gurajada by uttering a few
pages of 'Kanyasulkam'. They used to claim that it's humanly
impossible to organize 'Kanyasulkam' as a play. Then Somayajulu
and Ramana Murthy concise the Kanyasulkam without losing the
impact and rewrote the play version. Then he started looking
out for the suitable actors. Since Somayajulu used to be the
development officer for their village, he used to meet lot
of Surpanchs and Munasubs. He observed their way of thinking
and their mannerisms. He used all his observation to create
the 'Ramappantulu' character of 'Kanyasulkam'. He donned that
role of Ramappantulu in Kanyasulkam.
In
the early 1980s, K Vishanath was searching for an actor to
play a role that has the attributes of a pure Brahmin and
a music exponent. JV Somayajulu acted in a small role in a
film called 'Raa Raa Krishnaiah'. During that period SP Bala
Subramanyam - the music director of that film - observed the
talent of Somayajulu and aptly recommended him to K Vishwanath
for the role of Sankara Sastry. Finally JV Somayajulu was
cast for the role of 'Sankara Sastry'. And the rest is - as
they say - history.
He
got his first commercial break as an actor in cinemas in his
50's. Later on he acted as an opportunist in 'Allari Pillalu'
and as Muslim Village Lord in 'Nelavanka'. He also acted in
'Rowdy Alludu', 'Swathimutyam', 'Thyagayya', 'Saptapadi',
'Vamsa Vruksham' etc. His role as a strict, yet caring father
in 'Vijeta' got lot of appreciation. He also acted in a Hindi
film called 'Pratibandh'. He was instrumental in making a
13 episode serial of 'Kanyasulkam'. He acted as Ramappantulu'
in that soap opera too.
He
started an organization called 'Rasaranjani' along with his
contemporaries like Chatla Sriramulu, Garimella Srirama Murthy,
Rallapalli. 'Rasaranjani' is taking steps to promote stage
plays in Telugu. JV Somayajulu is retired from his Government
work. He is not straining himself by acting in films. The
latest film done by him is the 'Rakta Kanniru'.
JV
Somayajulu will be remembered as 'Sankarabharan Sankara Sasthy'
by the next generations to come. He is one of the actors who
shot to fame with a film and never turned back. His died on
27th April 2004 at CARE hospital. May his soul rest in peace!
Disclaimer: The above information is compiled from
an article written by Sri PV Rama Mohan Niadu
Also Read
about other celebs: N T Rama Rao
and Raghupati Venkaiah Naidu
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