Veteran south Indian film producer Dr. D Ramanaidu has been honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke award for the year 2009 for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. He will be presented the award, ‘Swarna Kamal’, a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh and a shawl, at the International Film Festival of India to be held in Goa in October.
The legendary film producer entered the Telugu film industry with Anuragam in 1963. The very next year he got his biggest success in the super hit Ramudu-Bheemudu starring NTR. Ramudu-Bheemudu was later remade in Tamil as ‘Enga Veetu Pillai’ by B. Nagi Reddy with MGR.
In a career spanning over 47 years, D. Ramanaidu has produced over 130 films in Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi and Bhojpuri languages. He has been recorded in the Guinness Book of Records for this achievement.
Artistes like NT Rama Rao, A. Nageswara Rao, Sivaji Ganesan, Jayalalitha, Jamuna, Padmini, Sobhan BabuKamal Haasan, Jayaprada, Chiranjeevi, Rajinikanth, Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Rekha, Jeetendra and Sridevi have worked for his banner Suresh Productions
In Tamil also D Ramanaidu has a formidable reputation a producer. He has produced around 10 films in Tamil and many are part of history. ‘Thani Kattu Raja’ with Rajinikanth and ‘Vasantha Malaigai’ with Sivaji Ganesan are two most memorable films produced by D Ramanaidu in Tamil. He also produced the 100th film of Jayalalitha ‘Thirumangalyam’. He is also the producer who introduced the current FEFSI chief VC Guhanathan as a director with the film ‘Mathurageetham’ in 1977.
D Ramanaidu’s legacy continues with his elder son Suresh Babu takes care of his productions, younger son Venkatesh and grand son Rana Daggubati scorching the screens as fantastic actors.
IndiaGlitz congratulates D.Ramanaidu on being chosen for this prestigious award.