Pingali Nagendra Rao

Pingali Nagendra Rao
Born	29 December 1901 Rajam, Srikakulam district
Died	6 May 1971
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Hindu
Citizenship	India
Alma mater	National College, Machilipatnam
Genre	Playwright, poet, lyricist, story writer

Pingali Nagendrarao (Telugu: పింగళి నాగేంద్రరావు) (29 December 1901 – 6 May 1971) was a Telugu movie script writer, playwright and lyricist. Famous for his witty and romantic lyrics, he also wrote dialogues for many movies. Patala Bhairavi, Mayabazar and Missamma are some of his best known works.

Pingali is famous for his coining of new and funny words and phrases in Telugu such as Dhimbaka, Dingari, Gimbali.

He was born in a Brahmin family on 29 December 1901 to Gopalakrishnaiah and Mahalaxmamma in Rajam, near Bobbili, Andhra Pradesh. Because most of his relatives are settled in Machilipatnam, their family migrated there. He did a course in Mechanical Engineering from the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, Machilipatnam.

He joined Indian independence movement and wrote Janma Bhoomi as his first literary work. He was arrested for the same. He worked as a teacher for some time and later joined Bengal Nagpur Railway at Kharagpur for two years. He was union leader of the labour association there. During this period, he translated Dwijendralal Ray's Mebar Patan (1922) as Mevadu Rajyapatanam and Pashani (1923) from Bengali into Telugu language. His independent work during the same time was Jebunnisa. All the three dramas were published in Krishna Patrica. He joined Indian National Congress and as pracharak toured the entire country and reached Sabarmati Ashram.

He came back to Machilipatnam and joined Indian Dramatic Company of Devarakonda Venkata Subbarao in 1924 as writer and secretary. He wrote Vindyarani play in 1928 based on the Dubois of Padua of Oscar Wilde, Naa Raju play based on the history of Sri Krishnadevaraya, Maro Prapancham social play and Rani Samyukta historical play.

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