Kamalakara Kameswara Rao

Kamalakara Kameswara Rao
Born(1911-10-04)4 October 1911
Machilipatnam, Madras Presidency, British India
Died29 June 1998(1998-06-29) (aged 86)
Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
OccupationFilm direction
EducationBachelor of Arts
Alma materNoble College, Machilipatnam
Period1940s to 1980s
GenreEpic
Historical
Notable worksMahakavi Kalidasu
Gundamma Katha
Mahamantri Timmarusu
Nartanasala

Kamalakara Kameswara Rao (04 October 1911 – 29 June 1998) was an Indian film director known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema, and a few Tamil and Hindi films. Widely known as Pauranika Chitra Brahma (transl. Brahma of mythological films),[1] Kameswara Rao directed fifty feature films in a variety of genres.[2]

In 1960 he directed the biographical film, Mahakavi Kalidasu which won the President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Telugu.[3] In 1962 he directed Gundamma Katha which was commercially successful and received the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu. In the same year, he directed another biographical film, Mahamantri Timmarusu which won the President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Telugu at the 10th National Film Awards.[4]

In 1963, Rao directed the blockbuster, epic mythological film Nartanasala.[5][6] The film is cited among CNN-IBN's list of the hundred greatest Indian films of all time.[7] The film has received wide critical acclaim and has garnered the National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film at the 11th National Film Awards, and has secured the Filmfare Award for Best Telugu Film.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Kameswara Rao, Kamalakara, Luminaries of 20th Century, Part I, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, 2005, pp: 74–5.
  3. ^ "8th National Film Awards". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 23 November 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  4. ^ "10th National Film Awards". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  5. ^ a b "11th National Film Awards". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 2 May 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  6. ^ "Directorate of Film Festival" (PDF). Iffi.nic.in. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 May 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  7. ^ "100 Years of Indian Cinema: The 100 greatest Indian films of all time". IBNLive. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013.