Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry | |
---|---|
Native name | సీతారామ శాస్త్రి |
Born |
Chembolu Seetharama Sastry May 20, 1955 Sivini, Madhya Pradesh |
Residence | Hyderabad, Telangana (current) Anakapalle, Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh, India |
Nationality | Indian |
Education | |
Alma mater | P. R College, Kakinada Andhra University |
Occupation | Lyricist |
Years active | 1984–present |
Children | 2 sons and a daughter |
Awards |
Nandi Award for Best Lyricist Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist – Telugu |
Chembolu Seetharama Sastry (popularly known as Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry) (born 1955) is an Indian lyricist known for his works in Telugu cinema. He won the Nandi Award for Best Lyricist 10 times and Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist – Telugu 4 times. He was the key note speaker at the Telugu Association of North America's celebrations held in Chicago between 2 and 4 July 2009. He is currently the highest paid film lyricist in Andhra Pradesh. Recently, He was also felicitated by the Bay Area Telugu association.
Seetharama Sastry debuted with writing songs for Kasinathuni Viswanath. Though his debut song was for Janani Janmabhoomi (1984), where his name was shown as Ch Seeta Rama Sastry, the songs in the movie Sirivennela were so phenomenally popular that the name of this movie got tagged to his given name.
The songs of this movie are wonderful and rich in meaning that each of the songs is remembered to this day as landmarks in Telugu film-music.
A particular highlight of the movie is the song "Vidhata Thalapuna", sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and P. Susheela. The song is about Aum, the most sacred syllable in Hinduism, from which the Veda traditions originated. Other notable songs include Adibhikshuvu Vadinedi Koredhi and Ee gali Ee Nela. The songs and their lyrics became hugely popular with Sastry, subsequently winning his first Nandi Award for Best Lyricist for the song "Aadi Bhikshuvu". He won Nandi Award for his first film itself, which was an unprecedented and never again record.
He then wrote lyrics for many songs in films such as Swayam Krushi, Swarna Kamalam, Samsaram Oka Chadarangam, Shrutilayalu, Pelli Chesi Choodu. The lyrics for these songs got high reception and Sitarama Sastry was established as one of the major lyricists in the Telugu film industry. He won his second Nandi Award for Best Lyricist for the song "Telavardemo Swamy" from the film Shrutilayalu and his third Nandi Award for Best Lyricist for the song "Andela Ravamidi Padamuladaa" from the film Swarna Kamalam in 1988. He also made record by winning hat-trick Nandi Awards in 1986, 1987 and 1988 and became the first one to do so.