J. V. Raghavulu

He belonged to an agricultural family in Ramachandrapuram, East Godavari district. His parents were Veeraswami Naidu and Adilaxmi. He was one of the six siblings. He learned acting and singing from Bhadracharyulu who used to organize Harischandra play. He gave him chance to act as Lohitasudu in the play. He used to study in the school and act in the plays touring different places. Famous poets Indraganti Hanumachastri and Vedula Satyanarayana Sastry were his school teachers. Their poems used to be broadcast in All India Radio, Vijayawada. They encouraged him to sing these poems. He tuned and voiced many songs written by them and other writers in "Geetavali" programme. In one of the recording sessions, popular singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao heard him singing a light song. Impressed by his voice, he invited Raghavulu to the films. He completed S.S.L.C.

Leaving studies and without informing the parents, he left home, reached Madras and worked under Ghantasala for long time. He was there with him from early morning to late night learning the nuances of playback singing and composing music. Ghantasala used to look after him as his son. He sang "Baito Baito Pellikodaka" in Pelli Sandadi (1959) film for Chalam. He used to look after the composition of the songs for many films. He also worked with K. V. Mahadevan and M. S. Viswanathan for sometime.

He composed thousands of songs. His memorable songs include Janani Janmabhoomischa (Bobbili Puli), Veena Naadi Teega Needi Teegachatu Raagamundi, Tarangini O Tarangini, Ee Jeevana Tarangalalo (Jeevana Tarangalu) and many others.

He was married to Ramanamma. They had four sons (Venkateswar Rao, Bhaskar, Shyam Kumar and Ravi Kumar) and a daughter (Lakshmi). Ravi Raghav has also worked as a music composer, working for the low budget Tamil films, Villalan, Muthal Thagaval Arikkai and En Oviya.[3]

• J. V. Raghavulu at IMDb
• Picture gallery of honouring J.V.Raghavulu.
• J V Raghavulu No More