KAKINADA: It was a Black Sunday for Mogalturu in West Godavari district as news of the death of Uppalapati Venkata Krishnam Raju (83), the celebrated Tollywood actor and former Union minister, reached the village.
The death, which occurred in a private hospital in Hyderabad in the early hours on Sunday, was widely mourned across the two Telugu states. Krishnam Raju was popularly known as Rebel Star.
The grief-stricken residents of Mogalturu visited the ancestral home of Krishnam Raju, known as Kota Samsthanam (Fort), and paid homage to him by placing his photo beside those of his ancestors and garlanding it. Shops and establishments were closed in the village as tribute to him.
YSRC leader Sarraju reached the village and expressed his condolences. The locals exerted pressure on Raju’s relatives to perform his last rites in Mogalturu, but the film industry had other plans. Krishnam Raju was always the son of the soil and he used to visit the village frequently and interact with his old friends and the general public. He owned a shopping complex and agricultural lands in the vicinity of the village. He had a mango orchard near his fort.
The traders in the village downed the shutters, placed photographs of Krishnam Raju in front of the shops and paid homage to him by garlanding the photos. Many recollected their association with him and the services rendered by the film star to his village.
Krishnam Raju as minister had sanctioned a bridge between Mogalturu and Vempa over a Godavari canal, providing road connectivity to many villages and making travel easier in the region.
Kasina Krishna, a resident of Mogalturu, recalled that the very name Mogalturu used to strike an emotional chord with Krishnam Raju. “We attended a function arranged for a Prabhas film Saho. When when we mentioned that we were from Mogalturu, Raju placed his hand over our shoulders and treated us with great affection. He had lunch with us and gave us a very warm farewell.”
“He was a warm-hearted human being despite being such a big star and minister. He never forgot his roots. Whenever a resident of Mogalturu met him in Hyderabad or any other place, Krishnam Raju used to inquire about the welfare of his friends and acquaintances in the village and also about the village elders,’’ he said.
Krishnam Raju’s father UVV Satyanarayana Raju and mother Lakshmi Narasayamma, hailed from a village Yerrampalem near Rajamahendravaram. They migrated to Kota Samsthanam in Mogalturu to work for the Maharaja, who was related to them. The rebel star hailed from Kshatriya community, but he had friends in across all castes and communities. In his childhood, he used to move around freely. He studied in Mogalturu and Narsapuram schools and did his graduation at the Badruka College in Hyderabad.
Krishnam Raju married Seetha Devi, the daughter of the Mogalturu Maharaja and the couple had a daughter. After she passed away, he married Syamala Devi and through this wedlock, three daughters were born. Krishnam Raju had a special bond with his brother late Suryanarayana Raju, the father of film star Prabhas.
Before entering the film field, Krishnam Raju ran a cycle shop at Pathepuram, the village of his uncle and freedom fighter Murthy Raju. For a period he worked as a clerk in the Panchayat office at Mogalturu and later ran a film studio in Hyderabad.
Mogalturu has given the Telugu film field several stars such as Krishnam Raju, Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Nagababu and Prabhas.
