Annamayya family now

It is possible that someone else was accorded more recognition, better paid, more in demand (hardly), more titled. But for generations of Andhras born between 1940 and 1985, Venkateswara Rao, popularly known as Ghantasala was numero uno and no one else stood a chance for this special place in their hearts.

Before Ghantasala found himself in the spotlight of public attention, through the media of films and gramophone records, he was an accomplished singer with impeccable training in Carnatic music.

He was born on 4 December 1922 in Choutupalle near Gudivada into an ordinary family. His father Surayya was an itinerant singer of Narayana Teertha's tarangas; he also played the mridanga. He was the first teacher of little Venkateswara Rao. Ghantasala would dance, as a child of six to his father's singing of taranga-s and this earned him the title of Bala Bharata.

Surayya, who was always more into music and musing than looking after the family fortunes, died wh