Those were the days when plays and theatre performances were a major form of entertainment. But, it did not stop there. The credit of extending entertainment to the silver screen, not confining it just to the stage goes to Silent films. And it soon grew to talkies (Sound films), which gave voice to the characters making the audiences feel every little detail of the film. The first ever sound film produced in Telugu was Bhaktha Prahlada.
The success of the first talkie of Indian cinema ‘Alam Ara’ inspired H.M. Reddy to produce and direct Bhaktha Prahlada. With the support of Alam Ara’s director Ardeshir Irani, he made Bhaktha Prahlada, which created history as the first Telugu Talkie. This 1931 film was shot in Krishna Movie Town Studios, in Mumbai. With a budget of fifteen thousand rupees and duration of 108 minutes, the film was completed in just 20 days.
At the time when Telugu Talkies started, mythological plays were very popular. That was the reason why H.M. Reddy chose the subject of Bhaktha Prahlada and wanted to make it the first talkie in Telugu. The very famous theatre group in Andhra Pradesh, ‘Surabhi’ had various performances of the play ‘Bhakta Prahlada’, which was written by the great playwright and ‘Andhranataka Pitamaha’ Dharmavarapu Ramakrishnacharyulu. Interestingly, H. M. Reddy picked the actors in that play and took them to Mumbai to act in his film. In the film, in addition to dialogues and poems, H.M. Reddy made Chandala Kesavadasu to pen songs too. The great poet Kesavadasu, thus remains in the history of Telugu Cinema to have penned its first song. H. R. Padmanabha Sastri produced music for the film and interestingly all the actors sang their own poems and songs live, while shooting the film. Few changes were made to the play so as to make it more suitable for the movie.
Govardhan Bhai Patel took the responsibility of Cinematography and the actors of the first Talkie include Munipalli Subbhaiah as Hiranya Kasupudu, Surabhi Kamalabai as Leelavathi, Chitrapu Narasimha Rao as Chandamarkulu, L. V. Prasad as Modhabbai, (friend of Prahlada) and finally Sindhuri Krishna Rao as Prahlada. Also, L. V. Prasad worked as an assistant director for this film.
The one who made the characters speak their hearts out on the silver screen, H. M. Reddy is credited as the pioneer of South Indian Talkie and is referred to as Talkie Puli by the Telugu Industry. He successfully laid the foundation for Telugu cinema, which grew as a giant tree, entertaining millions of people since 8 decades. (Though this film was noted to have released on 15-9-1931, few historians dispute its accuracy. However, Bhakta Prahlada remains the first Telugu Talkie in the History of Indian Cinema)
