K Raghava, one of the senior producers of Tollywood and the owner of Pratap Arts Productions, passed away at the age of 105 in Hyderabad. The industry veteran who lived in an era that witnessed 100 years of Indian cinema and had produced 30 movies, of which 25 were blockbusters, breathed his last on the early hours of Tuesday. In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for his services to the Telugu industry.
Born in Pedapalli in 1913, Raghava ran away from his house at the age of eight after a tiff with his father and ended up at the Silent Pictures film studio in Kolkata. After working as a trolley puller for three years at the studio, Raghava shifted to Vijayawada where he started to work for Maruthi Talkies. He also assisted popular narrator Kasturi Shiva Rao in reading out scripts to the audience at a time when movies did not have an audio system. He then found a job with the Maharaja of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.
Later on, Raghava moved to Chennai where he produced 30 movies, of which 28 were in Telugu, one in Tamil and one in Hindi.
With many popular films to his credit like Thaatha Manavadu, Jagat Kantreelu, Thurpu Padamara, Chaduvu Samskaram and Tharangani, Raghava was also instrumental in introducing many directors and actors to Tollywood who went on to make a mark in the industry.
During the making of Palnati Yuddham, when assistant directior Ramabrahmam passed away during the shoot, K Raghava suggested the name of LV Prasad to Raja Raghava and the latter took him on board and roped him in as assistant director. Later LV Prasad made a social movie Mana Desam in which Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (Sr NTR) played the lead role. K Raghava was also the action director for NTR starrer Pathala Bhairavi, which was a landmark film for NTR.
K Raghava also worked as a production executive and stuntman for many movies. He was one of the popular filmmakers across India and abroad and could speak about eight languages. K Raghava also introduced late Darshakaratna Dasari Narayana Rao to the industry with his film Thatha-Manavadu.
K Raghava’s last rites will be performed on Tuesday in Mahaprasthanam in Hyderabad.