Kalyanam Raghuramaiah

Who was Kalyanam Raghuramaiah?

Kalyanam Raghuramaiah, popularly known as Eelapata Raghuramaiah is famous Telugu drama and film actor and recipient of Padmasri Award.

He was born in Suddapalli village of Guntur district and named as Venkata Subbaiah. He was popular during childhood days in playing Raghurama, hence named as Raghuramaiah by Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao.

He was famous for the roles of Sri Krishna or Dushyantha, Bhavanisankar, Narada etc. He performed those roles for about 60 years. He indulged in elaborate raga alapana, based on different ragas while rendering padyams.

He had the extraordinary ability to sing padyams and songs through whistle, by putting his finger in mouth and producing the whistle or flute sound. He has acted in various dramas and gave more than 20,000 stage performances. Many eminent personalities held Raghuramaiah's talent at highest regard. Nehru, Tagore and Sarvepalli Radhakrisnhan are known to have appreciated Raghuramaiah. He has been named as "Andhra Nightingale" by Rabindranath Tagore

He entered Telugu cinema in the 1930s. He acted as Sri Krishna in many films including Sri Krishna Rayabaram and in the film Chintamani.