Samarla Venkata Ranga Rao (S.V. Ranga Rao) was born on July 3, 1918 at Nuzvidu town in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, when the first World War was drawing to a close. His mother, Lakshmi Narasayamma, a staunch devotee of Lord Venkateshwara, named the boy after Him – Venkata Ranga Rao. His father, Koteswara Rao, was an excise inspector.
The possessive father sent S.V.R. to the erstwhile Madras presidency where he completed his schooling at Hindu College. At an early age of 12, the boy showed immense interest in stage acting. The mind of youthful S.V.R. was always preoccupied with the thoughts of stage-plays and film acting even while studying B.Sc. Immediately after graduation S.V.R. got a job in the Fire Service as an officer. Two objectives were still clear in his mind, to do MSc and to take active part in dramas and films. S.V.R.’s relatives and family members ridiculed him by telling that he was a fool to go after chances in cinema by shunning the government job. Legendary L.V. Prasad gave S.V.R. the real break and provided all the moral support and encouragement. He is one of the best actors of Indian cinema.
S.V.R. got an invitation from one of his relatives, B.V. Ramanandam, to play the hero in his film “Varoodhini”. He immediately abandoned the job, and left for Salem to join the celluloid world. In fact, it was a great beginning for the young man. The film “Varoodhini” was released and in a few days people began to forget that they had ever seen such a movie. No producer dared to offer a role to him. Soon S.V.R. was disillusioned with the film industry and left the Madras presidency and reached Jamshedpur. He was employed as a budget assistant with the Tata Company there. However his love for dramas began to bloom multifold. At this juncture, he was married to Leelavathi Vadeti on December 27, 1947. In the days that followed S.V.R. was given an opportunity to play the villain in the film, “Palletoori Pilla,” produced by B.A. Subba Rao. Unfortunately, when S.V.R. was about to take a train to Chennai, his father expired. After performing the final rites, S.V.R. reached Chennai, but somebody had knocked away the villain role, so they offered him a secondary role. Later he did a small role as Sunnam Rangadu in Vijaya’s “ Shavukaru(1950).
Luck tapped at S.V.R.’s door through Vijaya Pictures. Vijaya Pictures offered him the most memorable “Nepala Mantrikudu” role in “Pathala Bhairavi(1951). Initially the role was offered to “Mukkamala” who was already popular as “ Mantrika” in Swapna Sundari (1950) and Mayala Mari (1951). K.V. Reddy the director of this movie finalized SVR for this role. S.V.R took this opportunity seriously.He became very famous with this role. He got an offer in “Pellichesi Choodu” (1952) immediately afterwards. Its Tamil version was also played by him. Within a short time S.V.R. received appreciation from both Telugu and Tamil film viewers. He played almost every historical character. He showed a kind of recklessness and arrogance in his dialogue delivery. The iconic status did not reach him so easily. He struggled a lot initially and from that struggle was born a great actor of all times. Maya Bazaar(1957) and Missamma (1955) are among his famous movies. His dialogue delivery cannot be matched by any film personality in the world as he could deliver dialogues even written in Sanskrit with ease and with complete emotions that no one can ever come close to him in this aspect. It is said that even N.T.R & Shivaji Ganeshan who were great in delivering dialogues in Telugu & Tamil respectively used to stammer in front of S.V.R. His performance in Bhakta Prahlada (1966) was stupendous as demon king “ Hiranya Kasipa” showing his love towards to his son Prahlada and hatred towards his enemy Lord Vishnu.
His compatriot Gummadi once exclaimed “Fortunate are we to have SVR born in India but SVR is unfortunate to have born here… if he were born in the West he would have been one of the top 5 actors of all time in the world” .
The very mention of “Maya Bazaar” brings the picture of S.V.R. as Ghatothkacha in the minds of Telugu people and Tamilians. His role as “Nepali Mantrika” in “Pathala Bhairav(1951)i” and as Kotayya in “Bangaru Papa(1954)” will continue to be remembered by millions of his admirers. As Keechaka in “Narthanasala(1963),” Duryodhana in “Pandava Vanavasam(1965)”, and Ravana in “Sampoorna Ramayanam(1971)” S.V.R. proved himself to be the king when it comes to acting the mythological films.
He was a passionate game hunter sporting an excellent fire-arm that he procured from a friend in the British Indian army. One day, he was hunting a deer. But suddenly, the deer stopped running and looked straight into the eyes of S.V.R., as if questioning rd “What will you get, if you kill me?” And thereafter S.V.R. never took up the gun again.
He won the Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Keechaka in Narthansala at the Indonesian Film Festival. It was the first time an Indian actor received an international award in acting. Surprisingly this fact is not well-known among many people. He felt very sad after getting the award that his own country couldn’t honor his talent even though it is accepted by all Indian film fraternity that no one can ever match to SVR acting talent. SVR passed away on 18th July 1974 leaving his memories.
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