The Multitalented Bapu

A complete portrayal of an artist who has layers of talent within him, presenting to you, as artistic as ever— Bapu. A man whose cartoons spoke of life, art spilled out aestheticism and filmmaking captured beauty.

Bapu and his illustrative cartooning; Source: D.D Saptagiri on Twitter

If he had to pick a favourite, drawing is what he would pick. Slowly giving in to the passion of drawing, he had made a brilliant career out of it. But before he could know, it had also made him familiar with the world of cinema. Sattiraju Lakshminarayana, aka Bapu, was born on 15th December 1933 in the Narasapuram town of Andhra Pradesh. He completed his degree of B.Com in 1953 and B. Law in 1955 from Madras University.

An artist who had started adorning filmmaking, Bapu has famously contributed to movies in three languages—Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil. Not one of his films will exclude features of subtle aestheticism, simplicity, light humour, observations of life, and portrayal of culture and tradition. Bapu worked together with the renowned writer Mullapudi Venkataramana (Ramana) and their partnership was always looked forward to. The Bapu-Ramana duo was thus an unmissable figure in the Telugu film industry.

That being said, Bapu made his debut as a director in 1967 with the Telugu film Saakshi. It was scripted by Ramana. This film was a trailblazer in the Telugu industry since it was completely shot outside.

The film made it to the 1968 Tashkent Film Festival. Till date, he has under 37 films with leading Telugu actors like N.T Rama Rao, A. Nageswara Rao, Krishna, Shoban Babu, Chiranjeevi, Somayarajulu, Mohan Babu, Rajendra Prasad, Krishnama Raju, Radhika, and Rwatri Sneha. Bapu started with Hindi actors in 1981 after featuring Anil Kapoor in his Telugu film Vamsa Vriksham. His first Hindi directorial was made with Hum Paanch in 1980. He has a total of nine Hindi films in his account.

The Bapu-Ramana team ventured into films like Sampoorna Ramayanam, Ramanjaneya Yuddham, Seeta Kalyanam, Thyagayya, Bhakta Kannappa, and Shreenatha kavisarvabhouma. All these movies changed the scenario of the Telugu film industry. Together, Bapu and Ramana had created magic on screen.

Sita Kalyanam got screened at the Chicago, London, Berlin, San Reno, and Denver International Film Festivals and is part of the course at the British Film Institute. Both Thyagayya and Sreerama Rajyam also got screened internationally. **

If his films were skyrocketing, his artistic creations were no less. Bapu's illustrations would be often seen in stories or on many book covers. These illustrations also included his unique cartoons that got printed in the weekly Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi periodicals. From working as a Senior Artist in advertising companies to being an Art Director, Bapu had excelled remarkably as an artist.

Together Bapu and Ramana have also been known for producing audio plus visual lessons for primary school children, this was an amazing initiative towards education. One famous illustrative animation of his was Budugu which is an eminent piece of Telugu literature. In addition to that, Bapu also created lessons for adult literacy.

Bapu was made the delegate at the seminar on Children’s Books sponsored by UNESCO in Bangalore in 1964. He was also the Art Consultant at the Southern Language Book Trust, which was sponsored by the Ford Foundation during the 1960s.

He has made illustrations for every Telugu writer appearing in print and been awarded a Jnanpith. The writers would be willingly ready to have Bapu illustrate their books for them. He knew exactly what to make and associated it accurately with the content of their books. His lettering style, known as the "Bapu Font" is famously used till date in many wedding invitations, advertisements, and signboards.

The collections of cartoons he made portraying the daily lives of Telugus have now been turned into a book. His depiction of girls has also become the basis of beauty, known as Bapu Bomma.

More than a hundred exhibitions and one-man shows of his works have been hosted all across Andhra Pradesh and also at the National Film Theatre, London, in 1978 and at the Telugu Conferences in the U.S. in 1978, 1985, 1992, 1995, and 1996.

Due to his multifaceted artistic talents, Bapu has been showered with many awards and achievements which include Lifetime Achievement Awards from Raja Lakshmi Foundation, Indian Institute of Cartoonists, Crowquill Academy, etc., National Film Award for Best Feature Films, President of India Rashtrapati Award from the Academy of Fine Arts, Nandi Award for Best Feature Film and the Padma Shri.

Sadly, however, this extraordinary artist had to bid adieu to this world of ours on 31st August 2014. Having been suffered from cardiac arrest, our beloved Bapu passed away that day. This is to remind you, wherever you are, that your cartoons and amusing art will always be loved by everyone. May you rest in peace.