Producer Daggubati Ramanaidu died in a Hyderabad hospital yesterday afternoon at the age of 78. He had been battling cancer.
His body will be placed in Ramanaidu Studios this morning for those who wish to say a final farewell. The last rites will be held at the studio this afternoon. ( Daggubati Ramanaidu: Producer. Politician. Legend)
A stream of politicians and actors arrived to pay respect, including superstars Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna with their families and YSR Congress party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Other members of the film fraternity included, actors Ravi Teja, Nandamuri Kalyan Ram, Harikrishna and Jr NTR, directors Puri Jagannath, Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao and Rajendra Prasad, producer and distributor Allu Aravind.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also mourned the death of Mr Ramanaidu on Twitter.
I condole the demise of Shri D Ramanaidu, a stalwart of the film industry. My thoughts are with his family & countless well-wishers: PM
- PMO India (@PMOIndia) February 18, 2015Telugu Desam chief N Chandrababu Naidu wrote on Twitter that he was 'deeply saddened' and said that Mr Ramanaidu's contribution to Twitter was immeasurable. Others who paid tribute online included Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh and South stars Mohan Babu and Hansika Motwani. .
Daggubati Ramanaidu holds the Guinness World Record for producing the highest number of films - over 150 films in several languages. These include Telugu films Gopala Gopala and Drushyam , and Hindi films Prem Qaidi and Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain.
Mr Ramanaidu's films starred many of India's biggest stars, among them Rajinikanth, A Nageswara Rao, NTR, Rajesh Khanna, Chiranjeevi, Kamal Haasan, Sivaji Ganesan, Hema Malini, Rekha and Jeetendra. He gave actress Tabu an early start in his 1991 Telugu film Coolie No 1, as well Khushboo who was graduating from child star to leading lady in 1986's Kaliyuga Pandavulu.
Apart from running hugely successful studios and production houses, Daggubati Ramanaidu also dubbed several Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films.
Mr Ramanaidu also turned to politics later in his career. He was the Telugu Desam MP from Bapatla in Guntur between 1999 and 2004.
Among the many prizes and honours he received were the Padma Bhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke awards.
Mr Ramanaidu's sons are producer Suresh Babu and actor Venkatesh. His grandson is actor Rana Daggubati.
