Krishna Kumari-An actress of substance

Noted Telugu actress of yesteryears, Krishna Kumari, who passed away on Wednesday after a prolonged illness at the age of 85 carved out a niche for herself in the Telugu film industry. Born in a Telugu Brahmin family at Naihiti in the State of West Bengal to Venkoji Rao and Sachi Devi on March 6, 1933, Krishna Kumari who made her debut with the Telugu movie ‘Navvithe Navarathnalu’ in the year 1951, went on to act in a number of Telugu, Kannada and Tamil films with all the leading stars of the 1950s and 60s like N T Rama Rao, ANR, Kantha Rao, Jaggaiah, Krishnam Raju, Raj Kumar and Sivaji Ganeshan and proved her mettle as an actress possessing both talent and glamour.

She was equally at ease with various genres like folklores, mythological, devotional and in social films, highlighting middle class values. Her elder sister Sowcar Janaki is also a well-known actress in Telugu who gave her a stiff competition as an actress.

During the early 1960s, when the top actors of Telugu film industry like NTR and ANR had a tiff with Jamuna and boycotted her films, it was Krishna Kumari whom they promoted. With NTR, she went on to act in films like ‘Bandipotu’, ‘Lakshadhikari’ and ‘Sri Tirupatamma Katha’,(1963) ‘Aggi Pidugu’, ‘Gudi Gantalu’,(1965), Sri Krishna Tuilabharam’ (1966) ‘Ummadi Kutumbam’(1967) and ‘Tikka Shankaraiah (1968) which were all run away hits. She had to compete with the leading ladies of those days like Savitri, Jamuna, B Saroja Devi, Bhanumathi and Anjali Devi.

With Akkineni Nageshwar Rao, she acted in films like Pelli Kanuka and Vagdanam (1960), Bharya Bharthalu (1961), ‘Kulagotharulu’ (1962), ‘Punarjanma’ and Chaduvukunna Ammayilu, (1963) Dr Chakravarthy,(1964) Anthasthulu (1965) and Bharya Biddalu (1971)
Another popular folklore hero of the 1960s was Kantha Rao with whom she acted in Shanti Nivasam (1960),’Constable Kooturu’ (1963), ‘Guruvunu Minchina Shishyudu’ (1964), ‘Chikkadu-Dorakadu’ and ‘Iddaru Monagallu’ (1967) and with Jaggaiah in ‘Bangaru Papa’ (1953) ‘Vuyyala Jampala’ (1965). She also acted with the newcomer Krishnam Raju in his debut movie ‘Chilaka-Gorinka’ in 1966. Her Tamil films include ‘Thirumbi Paar’ (1953), ‘Manithan’ (1953) and ‘Azhagi’ (1953) to mention a few.

After acting in films like ‘Paadi Pantalu’, ‘Secretary’, and ‘Jyothi’ and ‘Manishi Roddana Paddadu’ (1976), in which she took up elderly character roles, she bid good-bye to films. She was married to Ajay Mohan Khaitan, a businessman in 1969 and they have a daughter Deepika. Putting an end to her film career, she took more interest in cooking and gardening.

By: B Srinivas Narayana Rao