Senior photographer Maruthi dead

Vijayawada: Senior press photographer Kokku Maruthi Prasad died of long illness here on Tuesday. He was 66 and is survived by wife, son and daughter. He breathed his last at St. Ann's Hospital in the city in the afternoon and the funeral will be held on Wednesday.

Maruthi Prasad more popular as Maruthi worked as staff photographer in leading Telugu dailies Eenadu, Udayam and Vaartha for over four three decades. His photographs were published in several regional and national publications. Maruthi became hot favourite for the media for his most popular photographs of Telugu Desam founder N T Rama Rao when the latter launched the political outfit in 1982.

He travelled with NTR for six months all over the State, before the Telugu Desam won the elections in 1983. His photographs during the Chaitanya Radham tour of NTR received appreciation all over. Maruthi was also the only photographer who had recorded the proceedings of the historical Mahandu of the Telugu Desam held in Vijayawada in which national leaders like V P Singh, Jyothi Basu, Devi Lal and others rallied.

Maruthi had learned photography in the Bombay Studio established by his father K V Naidu near Vinoda Theatre in the city. Subsequently, Maruthi had become master for budding photographers. Today, there are several photographers across the State working in various newspapers, who were trained by him initially.

He also won several awards and prizes for his passion for photography and during N Chandrababu Naidu's tenure as Chief Minister, Maruthi was honoured as State Best Photogapher.