A remarkable journey

Hailing from Komaram Bheem Asifabad district, Nagabala Suresh Kumar is an award-winning actor, director, producer, and writer. He received 12 Nandi awards for his work in fields like acting, direction, producing. He has his name is ‘Wonder Book of World Record and Genius Book of International Record for directing 856 documentary films. He recently compiled a book ‘Telangana Kotalu: The Forts of Telangana’, to narrate the real history of Telangana forts.

Speaking with The Hans India, Nagabala Suresh Kumar shares his 50-years journey in theatre, television, and cinema. At the age of 18, Suresh quit his job as revenue inspector to pursue his passion for art. “I was interested in theatre since my childhood. My father Dandanayakula Srinivasa Rao is a Carnatic and Hindustani music artiste. He inspired me to take up the theatre field.

I acted in my first play ‘Manadesham’ in 1967. Since then I have acted and directed many plays like ‘Balachandra’, ‘Lankeshwara’, ‘Meeraite Emchestaru’, ‘Quit India’, ‘Struggle for Existence’ among others,” said Nagabala Suresh Kumar, Founder and President, Telugu TV Writers Association.

He entered television industry in 1991 with the serial ‘Pratikshanam Bhayam Bhayam’. His serial ‘Sri Adi Parashakthi’ in 1995 is the first mythological serial from South India. It was translated into 18 languages all over the world. He also did first scientific serial in India, ‘Aatma Yatra’, first serial on snakes, ‘Nagabala’ and first crime serial, ‘Aparadhi’. After the huge success of ‘Nagabala’, he earned the moniker “Nagabala Suresh Kumar”.

Suresh also protested the dubbing of serials from Hindi, Tamil, etc, into Telugu to provide opportunities for the local artistes. “There are 138 Telugu channels and more than 1.1 lakh people are dependent on it. For the betterment of their lives, we set up a federation in which we created separate unions for all 24 crafts.

For one dubbed serial telecast in Telugu, more than 70 people are losing their daily work. Four years back, we protested for 50 days to ban the dubbing works and succeeded to control the flow of it in the Telugu states,” he added.

Suresh also made serials on the life of Komaram Bheem and Chakali Ailamma, which were aired on Doordarshan. He made 686 documentary films on various issues. This year he has completed 50 years in the theatre. “I acted in more than 50 plays and performed 3,000 shows all over India. The situation of theatre field in Telugu states is going down every year. Our neighbourhood States give more importance to it.

There are many prominent film actors still do theatre despite their busy schedules. One should remember that theatre is the mother of television and cinema,” he shared.

Suresh lamented that Telugu plays are made only for the theatre competitions and not for public cause. “A play must explain people’s issues like happiness, sadness, and it has to give the solution in the end. We must stage plays in villages to encourage street plays. There are a few people like Surabhi Natyamandali which is striving to save the art for 138 years,” he opined.

Till now Suresh Kumar wrote 16 books. His recent book ‘Telangana Kotalu’ explains the history of Telangana Forts. “Not many people are doing the work to know the exact history of Telangana. I did four years research for this book and travelled all over Telangana to know the history of every fort.

Every fort tells us 100’s of stories. My second book on Telangana Kotalu will release soon,” he said. Suresh is planning to make 100 documentary films on people who sacrificed their lives for Telangana, in near future.

By V Sateesh Reddy